Alan William John West is an ex Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office who worked for ex Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
West is also an ex First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff. Gordon Brown made West a Peer. West is establishment through and through. He might warrant the description of a British apparatchik.
Under the by line of ‘Lord West’ he has written a piece for a red-top newspaper, The Sun. It’s titled, ‘If war is imminent we need to spend money NOW before it’s too late – the five things we desperately need to do.’ It begs the interesting question, why publish a piece like this in the Soaraway Sun?
Among all the Boys Own appeal to patriotism [see Samuel Johnson on that subject] , and vacuous remarks like, ‘Nothing makes you prouder than serving your country, [has West never read some of the First World War poets?] and ‘Never underestimate the courage of this nation’ [And never understimate the ability of Capitalism to persuade enough of the working class to go off and fight for the interests of the ruling class.] Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori, it isn’t and it never will be.
Arms manufacturers and their acolytes are already turning record profits from the conflicts presently going on in the world. Is this the equivalent of Yosser Hughes ‘gizza job’ but now it’s giz us more money so we can make more profits from all the death and destruction we an inflict? War is good for business!
West says, after bemoaning the state of military forces says, ‘If war is imminent we need to spend the money now. Our European partners are finally waking up to the need to dramatically increase their defence spending, with Poland and Germany taking action. We need Russian president Vladimir Putin to get the message that he can’t invade any more countries like he has Ukraine. By spending money beefing up our defence now, we can prevent a far more costly world war later. No dictator wants to invade a country capable of defeating them on the battlefield.
The most important contribution being made by Britain at the moment is helping to keep world trade flowing. [Bingo! That’s the important thing.}
Houthi rebels are firing deadly missiles at unarmed merchant sailors and it is our brave servicemen and women in the Red Sea standing up to them. HMS Richmond, HMS Diamond, HMS Lancaster and a squadron of three mine-hunting vessels and support ship RFA Cardigan Bay are part of Operation Prosperity Guardian that aims to protect container ships passing through this key trade route. No one should be in any doubt that the Houthis are well-armed with Iranian drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles which put innocent merchant seamen and our sailors in peril.
The morale of those on board our naval force in the Red Sea is high. They are incredibly well trained and highly motivated, adding to global security. The same can be said for the pilots flying the Typhoon jets from Cyprus which have carried out raids to deplete Houthi capabilities.
A quirk of MOD rules means that as a former head of my service I am automatically on the “active list”. It is not likely that the Royal Navy would ever need to call on my services in times of war, but if they did, I would immediately take up my post, even at the age of 75. {Think you’d be in a very tiny minority there Admiral.]
In World War Two Sir Walter Cowan famously shot at Nazi tanks in North Africa with his pistol at the age of 73. What is letting this country down is not our servicemen and women, it is the politicians leading them. We desperately need more ships, to replenish our supplies, increase military manpower, [i.e. persuade more members of the working class to go and fight capitalism’s wars for it.] ensure up-to-date maintenance and modernise our equipment. If that is done, we may avoid war. Should the unthinkable occur, then if we don’t give our military the tools they need, we can’t expect them to get the job done.’
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/25740607/lord-west-spend-money-army-war-imminent/
THE
SOCIALIST PARTY AGAINST ALL CAPITALIST WARS.
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