A week has passed since Trump announced that the USA had withdrawn all its BI bombers from RAF Fairford after an alleged terror plot had been prevented the previous week. According to Time Magazine they have been “re-deployed to their home stations in the United States”. But we are still no nearer to peace as nations continue preparing for war.
Those arrested at Fairford were all UK citizens and have been released on bail, which is unusual to say the least for suspected terrorists, leading to speculation that perhaps they were just a criminal gang out to steal diesel. The price has shot up since the US war on Iran and many farms hold large stocks of agricultural or ‘red’ diesel which is cheaper than normal diesel and is dyed red because it is illegal to use it except for farming purposes.
Still, Burnham claims he is almost certain that it was a terror plot orchestrated from Iran. He will ramp up the sanctions and the Iranian Ambassador will be summoned to the Foreign Office for a sharp warning from Ed Miliband. Iran has refused to back down to the USA and Israel so I am not holding my breath about that one.
At least the imminent threat of bombing Iran from UK soil has been removed. Perhaps the price of diesel will start to fall. Who knew that you could defeat the US Airforce with a gang of small time crooks and three white vans strategically placed on a road near to an airbase?
I live in Barrow-in-Furness where the government is spending billions on the high tech alternative to white vans, namely the UK’s nuclear submarine programme. This brought to mind a joke from when the shipyard built military equipment for armies as well as navies. A foreign tyrant was visiting Barrow to discuss an order for tanks to quell his rebellious population. He was sat in the office when the siren sounded at 12 noon and 10,000 workers poured out onto the streets.
“Quick! the revolution has started! Lock the doors! Where are my bodyguards?”
The tyrant was in a panic but the company director smiled.
“No need for alarm. It happens every day. The siren sounds and they all go home for lunch. Then the siren sounds again and they all come back to work.”
The tyrant sat back in his chair before saying, “I’ve changed my mind. Cancel the tanks. I want to order a shipload of sirens instead.”
Joking aside, heavily armed states with the latest expensive hardware are vulnerable to cheaper hand held technologies. In the 1980s Russia was in part driven out of Afghanistan by Stinger missiles, a Man-Portable Air-Defence System (MANPADS) that could neutralise air superiority by shooting down helicopter gunships. Today it is drones, which have been successfully deployed by Ukraine against Russia and by Iran against the USA and its allies in the Middle East. At the Tory Party conference Badenoch announced the “Britannia Shield” to defend the UK against drone and other short range missile attacks from Europe. Is she preparing for war with France? That would be taking Brexit a step too far!
The simple fact is that nobody can win the arms race. Whether you invest in doomsday machines or doomsday disruptors you are always racing to catch up with the latest innovations. A successful defence policy has to be based on the avoidance of war. The conventional argument is that increasing defence spending and showing your willingness to fight will make other countries think twice about attacking you.
Except that the biggest spender on “Defence” in the world is the USA. Since 1945, the United States has conducted military invasions, occupations, or bombing campaigns in over 30 countries worldwide. Overall, according to Dave Manuel there have been “nearly 400 U.S. military interventions across 80+ countries since 1776 – from the Barbary Wars to the War on Terror.”
It is a good job the USA is on our side. Or is it? Trump caved in to white van man in Gloucestershire and with the mid-term elections looming in November, Trump has bullied his European allies into releasing 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil by threatening a ban on fuel exports – all to bring down the price of fuel in the USA before the mid-terms. On top of that he has agreed to the release of nearly two million tons of Russian diesel onto the world market. This has upset Zelenskyy, who fears it will increase Russian capacity to wage war on Ukraine.
In the face of all this double speak the old chestnut that you can only achieve peace by preparing for war needs to be challenged. The only way to achieve peace is to stop war. And for that you have to challenge the warmongers and their twisted logic. The motto of the BBC, “Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation” is not enough to stop war. We have to speak peace unto each other and the surest way for that to happen is when workers cross directly over the national divide to speak together as happened at the International Conference Against War. It continues with the International Movement Against War, sponsored by Stop the War UK. If there is a meeting in your area we urge you to support it.
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