Best Of

Tice:

https://x.com/TiceRichard/status/1936403403116077166

My concern here is the rush to a precooked judgement, rather than a desire to know what happened and why.

Being Staish of a mega station like Brize is essentially running a vast bureaucracy so she's probably better qualified than most her peers.

The RAF 'management structure' for officers is weird and quite poor for developing senior leaders. They go from having no direct subordinates (they might take operational lead of a 4 a/c flight on a mission) to commanding a squadron where they might have to supervise 100+ people.

Tice, as might be expected, is being a c-nt over this. But being a Fukker is all about presenting simplistic causes of complex problems for the eager consumption of chubby morons so, in that sense, mission accomplished.

Good morning all.
It is, weather-wise, if not in global politics.

I've been a bit of a political nerd nearly all my life, from adolescence onwards, and all that time it has seemed to me that whatever the Iranian government, and sometimes the people, have wanted to do has been deemed a Bad Idea by the people at the top of the US and UK. And frequently Action Has Had To Be Taken to prevent or discourage whatever it was that the Iranians wanted to do.

Generally speaking, whatever Action has been taken has not turned out well for anyone, especially the poor souls who actually live in Iran, who are now living in a country where the major decisions, especially about lifestyle, are taken by elderly men with social views which would have made Cromwell's more extreme followers shake their heads with concern.

It would therefore, I suggest, be a good idea if we could create a situation where the Iranian people could elect the government that want, free from religious control. However, I could understand it if the Iranians, generally, felt that the way the current Israeli government is treating the native Palestinians, frequently but not always their co-religionists, fell well below any normally accepted standards of fairness.

As I said when I started, I've watched this scene develop for some seventy years and while it seems to me there is wrong and right on both sides in the region, I'm firmly off the opinion that the UK should keeps it's nose, and especially it's weapons, as far away as possible.
And confine ourselves to giving humanitarian aid as necessary.

Morning all

Not terribly surprised by the morning's news. One can argue it's a good argument for non-proliferation but I don't recall American planes bombing Indian, Pakistani and North Korean let alone Israeli nuclear production facilities.

I suppose it comes down to the truth you have to be a particular class of lunatic to be afforded the privilege of being denied nuclear weapons by force.

I'm musing more on the domestic political impact. While the pro-Palestine groups continue to agitate in parts of the country (my part of London as an example), I've not yet seen a big upswing in activity directly resulting from the conflict between Israel and Iran - that might change with the overt US intervention.

It will continue to perpetuate the other current schism in UK politics - not the one on the so-called "Right" but the one on the so-called "Left" between Labour and a coalition of young Muslim voters and former pro-Corbyn supporters. The latter are more interesting at a local level as they have been campaigning strongly and effectively on the failings of London Labour Councils and may well capture a number of seats at the next London locals next year.

Over time, this is far more likely to be a driver of nuclear proliferation.
The lesson here is that signing up to the non proliferation treaty opens you up to being bombed.
Nations are much more likely now to do deals with (eg) Pakistan on the QT.

Ukraine giving up a giant nuclear arsenal on the basis of "assurances" - then suffering a decade of war from a still nuclear armed neighbour - will prove a bigger driver to nuclear proliferaton.

There are few commentators on here more visceral in their dislike of Trump than me. But you have to wonder if the world would be a better place if it had been Obama undertaking this raid, back when he had the chance.

All tyrannical regimes will do what they can to push their boundaries when they can - literally in Russia's case - unless put back in ther box with a painful smackdown. Opportunities have been missed to do this to RUssia, North Korea and Iran.

The UN is clearly now pointless. It is certainly time for a new format - without veto rights - that the democratic world can sign up to. We must rob these deeply unpleasant regimes of the get out "well, the UN didn't stop us...".

Obama negotiated a nuclear treaty with Iran that Trump abandoned

But get real - the Iranians weren't even paying lip service. How long do you think it takes to create hollowed-out mountains for your enrichment facilities?

On nuclear matters, the Iranians have been lying scumbags. Anyone who thought they were going to honour it was a dupe. There is no good nature to appeal to when a theocracy states its intention on a daily basis to wipe a nation off the face of the earth.