48 Comments
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Barry Lederman, “normie”'s avatar

It certainly brought attention to the real problem of UK and EU talking big and carrying a small stick. That has been proven to be a losing strategy at a very high cost of lost lives and money for all except for the elites. Trump again pulled the chain on the current government.

Casey Jones's avatar

Yes! That which was attributed to The Troops actually applied in spades to the "leaders." But we can't have that, can we?

Thomas F Davis's avatar

Bravo!

Just a quibble: The war in Afghanistan was necessary until around March 2002, at which point we should have left.

The great mistake was exemplified by Colin Powell's "If you break it you own it" remark, which ignored the fact that it was always broken.

Another point: we based our occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq on that of Germany and Japan, while ignoring the cultural differences. The German and Japanese occupations worked in large part because they were shamed by defeat (and postwar revelations of atrocities). The cultures of Afghanistan and Iraq are shameless.

Bruce Miller's avatar

Yes, the original campaign to topple the Taliban was brilliant. Read "Horse Soldiers." Bush's nation building spree was idiotic and doubled our national debt. He should be reviled..

Unwoke in Idaho's avatar

Yes. It should have been bomb the hell out of them, tell them mess with us again and you’ll get worse and then leave. It was never going to be a Jeffersonian or any kind of democracy, it was rooted in the 7th century and we could have been there 1000 years and the minute we left, it would still revert back to the 7th century. All that money all those lives - a complete waste.

Bruce Miller's avatar

The graveyard of empires......Bush should have listened to Powell

Jupplandia's avatar

Fair points.

Jim McCubbin's avatar

Thank once more, Daniel. Your article is as exceptional as it is singular in pointing out the shameful inadequacies in the defence of the realm and of those in whom that responsibility is entrusted.

Your list is powerful because it does not rely on nit-picking irrelevancies when elephants are crowding the room in plain sight of all but the polite and fearful of giving offence who are more exercised in pointing out the irrelephants in the room.

Visible and understood capability of giving offence has long been recognised as the best deterrent to actually having to employ it.

Jupplandia's avatar

Thanks Jim. The way western leaders have betrayed their armed forces for decades is shameful. It’s deeply ridiculous to see them now pretending they care.

Clarity Seeker's avatar

Progressives hate the military unless they use it against those who oppose their progressivism. John Kerry proved this in 2003-4

Casey Jones's avatar

Captain Swifty, IIRC?

Clarity Seeker's avatar

The one and only. Who also denigrate enlisted soldiers while running to be president. But ya gotta admit: he married very well

Mystic William's avatar

So not all his decisions were bad. (For him.)

Clarity Seeker's avatar

The silver lining. Or was it gold?

Indrek Sarapuu's avatar

Excellent post!

Jupplandia's avatar

Thanks 😀😀

Bruce Miller's avatar

If a leftist globalist's mouth is moving, they're lying. At what point do sane patriots sober us and march Starmer and his EU and DNC counterparts to the gibbet. Just look at the despicable Carney cozying up to the PRC gangsters. That isn't even hidden treason. It's treason wide open.

Jupplandia's avatar

It is.its sickening to see cosying up to the CCP cast as responsible, wise and profound.

Mystic William's avatar

But Daniel…Mark is standing up to authoritarian leaders. By making friends with Xi Jin Ping.

Patrick  Clarke's avatar

The people really insulting British troops are the politicians, civil servants and human rights lawyers queuing up to prosecute them on their return from combat, sometimes decades later.

Jupplandia's avatar

Exactly. 👍

Casey Jones's avatar

I suspected that which you have revealed. It is the possibly Mortal Sin of our age that News... isn't. I was pretty sure -- heck, I was DAMN SURE that what he said was not that which was reported. The stupids are Out There and, in this case anyway, the reasoned are silent.

Thank you.

Jupplandia's avatar

He’s also released a new post where he praises British troops in very clear terms. Just Globalist and MSM media takedown attempts, again, that people fall for.

Casey Jones's avatar

Fall for the takedown attempts? They LIVE for the takedown attempts!

Richard North's avatar

I fished out my copy of "Losing Small Wars" by Frank Ledwidge yesterday. "American special forces had based themselves happily and generally peacefully at a base neat the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah" (p.64). Ledwidge then goes on to list all the strategic mistakes made by the British high command, including Blair and Brown, on taking over in Helmand.

The British soldiers were not cowards but Trump didn't call them cowards. He said we "stayed a little back", we "stayed off the front lines". Having a military partner who is entrusted to keep the peace in a relatively peaceful and insignificant zone, only to turn it into a hellhole through strategic blunders, must be tiresome.

Jupplandia's avatar

These realities were criticised by troops themselves, I believe.

Gary Edwards's avatar

Why even listen to these "news" sources? Pshaw!

Casey Jones's avatar

I don't! Amazing the amount of time I save.

Derek Sibthorpe's avatar

I would like to add that, although I greatly admire President Trump, his claim that America won WWII is not only crass but completely wrong. The defeat of Japan was undoubtedly 'an American show', but the defeat of Germany was very much an allied effort with no one nation likely to have won the war against Germany on its own. The defeat of Germany was split between American industrial might and late-war air power as their major contribution. The Normandy invasion and the war in Libya was predominantly with British and commonwealth man-power launched from Britain and the overwhelming brunt of the fighting from 1941-1945 was by the Soviet Union with its huge arms output and colossal and unprecedented cost in both German and Russian lives.

Jupplandia's avatar

True, but it’s standard for all patriotic Americans. The reality is that remove any of the key allies of US, UK and USSR and defeating Germany would have been a lot harder even then it was.

Mystic William's avatar

Hello! Canadian here. We had something like 1.1M people in the forces for WWII. Our total pop was about 11M. We served longer than the US. And suffered as much. Because we served well before the US joined we were the front line forces. We were the ‘shock troops’. Almost every single military age male was killed injured, often permanently, or massively traumatized in the War. An entire generation of men were ruined. These were the Fathers of the Baby Boomers.

Derek Sibthorpe's avatar

A just and common cause against a totalitarian despot. Such a pity that you have chosen to elect a Canadian party that is now cozying up to a Chinese totalitarian despot.

Mystic William's avatar

Our elections are being stolen. I don’t think any of our last five elections were not cooked.

Derek Sibthorpe's avatar

Hmmm. I have two Canadian second-cousins and my English friend with whom I emigrated to Canada in 1965 who loathe Trump and support Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney !

Derek Sibthorpe's avatar

What is it with Canada today William that it can't see Trump's U.S. as their continuing natural ally and trading partner? Canada has the same cultural make-up as the U.S. and the anglosphere (not withstanding Quebec) that, with its only and longest land border in the world with the the most powerful country in the world, would choose to change from the imperial system of measurement to the Metric system ?

Mystic William's avatar

Anyone with half a brain knows this. But so many are non thinking. And women are the worst. Most guys I know who don’t work for the government are appalled. But I know some guys who like it when Carney acts retard tough.

Derek Sibthorpe's avatar

Ah, yes, one of my second cousins was a teacher and the other worked in Canadian Stats.

Derek Sibthorpe's avatar

I can't disagree with the fundamental message in this article but, although I revel in and applaud President Trump's no-nonsense blunt and harsh criticisms of the Marxist/globalist politicians who have seriously undermined western, sovereignty, power, and identity for three decades or more he needs, in my opinion, to temper his criticisms of late with more precision and sophistication in his strategy on defeating the elite enemies within. Read the addresses to the crowd by Brutus and Mark-Antony in Shakespeare's 'play 'Julius Caesar' as an illustration on the importance in choice of words and method of delivery.

Jupplandia's avatar

He’s always spoken off the cuff without notes or even prep, totally different to most modern politicians. And he will always speak even to journos he knows are going to twist his words.

Casey Jones's avatar

Had to think a bit. No argument but. If there were any significant active Journalists out there, we would not be so dependent upon substackers for edification, would we?

Bruce Miller's avatar

Read the addresses to the crowd by Brutus and Mark-Antony in Shakespeare's 'play 'Julius Caesar'....

"Addresses"..... by the Bard, not the pols.

Mystic William's avatar

Why not listen to the clear cut no nonsense words of Captain Jean-Luc Picard? Now he was a Commander!

JakeOneEye's avatar

95% there Guy. At its peak we had around 9500 service folk of all stripes in the Stan. It peaked I recall in about 2011.

You are absolutely spot on regarding current state and relentless cut backs, these wouldn't be so bad if they weren't promising to deploy what's left to foreign lands -once more.

Lastly, the reason we deployed our people to Iraq and Afghanistan was to make it seem that America wasn't alone when really they were. We had no business being there and neither did they.

SUSAN SALES's avatar

ALWAYS great to read Jupplandia!

ThePossum  🇬🇧's avatar

Neither Starmer nor any leader of a NATO member country is qualified to move toy soldiers through a sandbox without the logistical, strategic and tactical support of the US military. That being said, Trump would no more disparage any troops than he would send those toy soldiers to capture a despot in Venezuela.