And I Thought Britain Knew Better

Kintarō Hattori

It was a bad idea when Ronnie was trying to push it and even though it's not as bad the original Star War's program it's still a bad idea. I'm really surprised that Britain would be in talks with America about having this missile defence system on it's soil.

What do you guys think about having this very controversial system on our doorsteps? Do you think it'll start a new arms race?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6388713.stm

Dragan

Bah, I grow tired of the Yanks and there "do what we say, not what we do" policies.

For me, politics would be better served to go back to the old days of assasinations, weird sex and intrigue ( that’s right, Rome ftw!! ) and less of this "well, someone somewhere might have a pocket knife, better build a missile defence system."

biko

meh Politics

Kintarō Hattori

biko wrote:

meh Politics

Not really, I've never visited that forum and I don't have any interest in politics in general, but this to me is just wrong.

Agamemnon

They usually would know better but it's that twat Blair who's to blame. He'll do whatever Bush tells him to do. The British resisted all pressure to get involved in Vietnam and history proved them right. But if Blair was in charge then, he would have sent in the troops.

stovelid

Thank jaysus.

I thought it was another tiocfaidh ar la thread about tomorrow.

:cool:

Kintarō Hattori

stovelid wrote:

Thank jaysus.

I thought it was another tiocfaidh ar la thread about tomorrow.

:cool:

God no, I have ZERO interest in sports and I'm all for remembering our history but moving on.

englander

I suppose Britain could take a leaf out of Ireland's book ?

ie. rather than getting involved in World problems/solutions, Britain should bury its neutral head in the sand and whistle through its arse ?
+
.... give out when other nations do something to attempt to help a situation, making sure to offer no alternative solutions.
+
...gratefully receive any help from other nations when the power of prayer :rolleyes: lets us down ?
+
Get a highly paid, unelected, 'foreign' president armed with lipgloss to smile a lot and actually do diddle squat (except put her foot in it when she does speak) ?

Maybe ?

Terry

englander wrote:

I suppose Britain could take a leaf out of Ireland's book ?

ie. rather than getting involved in World problems/solutions, Britain should bury its neutral head in the sand and whistle through its arse ?

Nice work on the Israel situation.
How are things in Afghanistan, by the way?
Maybe when the population returns to pre 1840's levels, there may be enough people here for us to become an agressive nation.

+
.... give out when other nations do something to attempt to help a situation, making sure to offer no alternative solutions.

Not interested in the Palestinians under seige?
Then again, blairs boyfriend has his hands tied by the powerful jewish lobby in the U.S., so that's out of the question.

+
...gratefully receive any help from other nations when the power of prayer :rolleyes: lets us down ?

Yes, because we all pray when we have problems.
No churches in Britain these days?
Wait, isn't your head of state also the head of the largest church in britain?
Aside from the vikings, we only ever needed help against the invasion of one other nation...
Oh, it's the EU yoú're talking about?
Have you not noticed that we are now beginning to pass that help onto other nations in need of help, now that we are in the position to do so.

+
Get a highly paid, unelected, 'foreign' president armed with lipgloss to smile a lot and actually do diddle squat (except put her foot in it when she does speak) ?

Maybe ?

prince philip wears lipgloss?
And the Windsors, with their long history in England.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Blair only has three months to go. Don't know much about Cameron/Brown/Whoever is likley to take over but I'd image the first thing they'll do is distance themselves from Bush.

Bush is in the evening years too. Of course, there's a lot more variables to his successor there, but you'd imagine that there'd be a bit of distancing going on there too...

bill_ashmount

englander wrote:

I suppose Britain could take a leaf out of Ireland's book ?

ie. rather than getting involved in World problems/solutions, Britain should bury its neutral head in the sand and whistle through its arse ?
+
.... give out when other nations do something to attempt to help a situation, making sure to offer no alternative solutions.
+
...gratefully receive any help from other nations when the power of prayer :rolleyes: lets us down ?
+
Get a highly paid, unelected, 'foreign' president armed with lipgloss to smile a lot and actually do diddle squat (except put her foot in it when she does speak) ?

Maybe ?

lol, thank god for Britain saving the world.

mikedragon32

Is this flame-bait or do you actually believe this?

englander wrote:

rather than getting involved in World problems/solutions, Britain should bury its neutral head in the sand and whistle through its arse ?

Where were the British when Germany annexed Austria and Czechoslovakia? Ah yes, in a Conference room in Munich agreeing to it (in the hope that the Germans wouldn't look West). That is involvement in problems.
Ireland has been a proud contributor to many UN Peacekeeping forces. That is involvement in solutions.

englander wrote:

gratefully receive any help from other nations when the power of prayer lets us down

How was WWII going for Britain before the US involvement?

englander wrote:

Get a highly paid, unelected, 'foreign' president armed with lipgloss to smile a lot

Who are you referring to? Our president is a democratically elected head of state, who, under our constitution, is not a foreigner and therefore fully entitled to the position. Much better her than some weapon who has only led a life of privilege and wears gloves when shaking the hands of her "subjects" while her extended family leech from the taxpayer.

Yes, we should look to the British for an example of how a state should run it's foreign affairs. The sun never set on her empire until she bled it dry.

Terry

Mike, I don't think it's flame bait.
I just think the OP is either blinkered or is poorly educated.

r3nu4l

englander wrote:

I suppose Britain could take a leaf out of Ireland's book ?

ie. rather than getting involved in World problems/solutions, Britain should bury its neutral head in the sand and whistle through its arse ?
+
.... give out when other nations do something to attempt to help a situation, making sure to offer no alternative solutions.
+
...gratefully receive any help from other nations when the power of prayer :rolleyes: lets us down ?
+
Get a highly paid, unelected, 'foreign' president armed with lipgloss to smile a lot and actually do diddle squat (except put her foot in it when she does speak) ?

Maybe ?

I'd rather all of the above than bend over and take it in the ass every time GWBush asked me to

To be honest, Britain is just another American outpost. There are already a lot of American airbases in the UK.

Also, Britains nuclear deterrent? Well guess what? The software is written and controlled by the US. Were Britain to decide to launch a missile and America decided that they didn't want that missile launched the Americans have all the necessary permissions to step in and override British missile controls :rolleyes:

When I moved to England I was surprised not to see a sign saying "Welcome to the United States of America"

Part of the reason for Britains entry to Iraq (and what a great job they've done there :rolleyes: ) was because the US threatened to pull software updates for the nuclear deterrent.

Also recently, British Ministers have finally decided to question the wisdom of Mr Blair attempting to buy US helicopters that have US weapons control software installed :rolleyes:

Yep, Britain...Bushs' bitch! This latest twist is no surprise at all.

EDIT:

Terry wrote:

Mike, I don't think it's flame bait.
I just think the OP is either blinkered or is poorly educated.

No Terry, I won't dig them out but Englander has a habit of posting these kind of posts. If you notice all he's done is attack Ireland, he's not even referred to the thread once.

mike65

*shakes heads*

Mike.

stovelid

Lets not forget that she looks like a grand national winner too.

P.S Englander wasn't the OP guys...

mikedragon32 wrote:

some weapon who has only led a life of privilege and wears gloves when shaking the hands of her "subjects" while her extended family leech from the taxpayer.

Dyr

englander wrote:

I suppose Britain could take a leaf out of Ireland's book ?

ie. rather than getting involved in World problems/solutions, Britain should bury its neutral head in the sand and whistle through its arse ?
+
.... give out when other nations do something to attempt to help a situation, making sure to offer no alternative solutions.
+
...gratefully receive any help from other nations when the power of prayer :rolleyes: lets us down ?
+
Get a highly paid, unelected, 'foreign' president armed with lipgloss to smile a lot and actually do diddle squat (except put her foot in it when she does speak) ?

Maybe ?

http://boards.org.uk tbh
Theres your jacket

Kintarō Hattori

stovelid wrote:

P.S Englander wasn't the OP guys...

Thanks for clarifiing that!

Judt

Planning for military threats is about what you'll face tomorrow as much as today. Sure you can't shoot down Johnny Terrorist with a missile defence system, but what happens if some bagger comes over the hill tomorrow with a conventional nuclear force in one hand and a list of demands on the other?

Anti-Americanism is no good reason to shag your defence. Also, don't forget that neutral Ireland was on the Soviet and American nuclear lists, to prevent either side from using the island as a base in what would have been the critical battle for the Atlantic to get the rest of the US Army to Northern Europe before the French could finish learning the Soviet National Anthem. At least had we picked sides Dublin would have only been nuked the once, and somebody would have thought to fire a couple of defensive missiles over our heads.

Black Swan

If it pertains to the USA, remember what was said in the underground parking structure in Washington, DC, when a snitch broke the Watergate case (which resulted in Vice President Agnew being convicted and President Nixon resigning, both Republicans like Bush). "Follow the money!" Starwars in the USA and UK is not about defense, it's about corporate profits. Their Iraq war is not about weapons of mass destruction (never found), or links to Bin Laden (nonexistent), or bringing democracy to the Iraq people (cover-up), but rather historic USA oil corporation profits.

toiletduck

Will it start an arms race? From Russia, no. China perhaps.

I always found it interesting reading all the criticism directed towards Ronnie, which is surfacing again towards Bush for what is a defensive technology.

r3nu4l wrote:

Also, Britains nuclear deterrent? Well guess what? The software is written and controlled by the US. Were Britain to decide to launch a missile and America decided that they didn't want that missile launched the Americans have all the necessary permissions to step in and override British missile controls

When I moved to England I was surprised not to see a sign saying "Welcome to the United States of America"

Part of the reason for Britains entry to Iraq (and what a great job they've done there ) was because the US threatened to pull software updates for the nuclear deterrent.

Any links at all?

WhiteWashMan

so, before anyone starts to jump any further down anyone elses throat, the americans have a runway in the west of ireland for american military planes.

so debating the advisability of upgrading the military defences of the UK is one thing, but going on about any sort american - british allegence is farcical.

by the way, i have no idea what isreal or afghanistan have to do with a british missle defence system.

WhiteWashMan

eo980 wrote:

Do you think it'll start a new arms race?]

no i dont.

the americans and the brits have had a missle defence system for decades.
the british are talking about upgrading the trident missle system for their nuclear class subs, and i dont see that creating a new arms race.

persoanlly, i think its overkill, an unneccessary waste of money, and it will never be used. but hey, i dont have the word consultant in my job title

astrofool

The only thing of the British (and the rest of the world) that the american's control is the GPS system, which is often used for missile targeting (and one of the reason's the EU is building it's own). They can still be fired independently of course. The software issues are in the new F-22 Raptor, which was joint designed, but is likely to be settled once the right payments are in place (i.e. Britain won't buy any if they don't get the access they want). Anyway, it's a completely seperate issue to Iraq, Afghanistan, missile defence etc.

And yea, we're in the pocket of the American's as well remember, despite being *cough* "neutral".

But doncha know the cool thing for the young ideologists is to rebel against America, and then cry to the latest song by that band with the rad haircuts. Thank god people grow up (some slower than others). In 10 years, it'll be something else, and people will barely remember Bush, and yes, the middle east will, is, and always has been completely f*cked.

Terry

r3nu4l wrote:

No Terry, I won't dig them out but Englander has a habit of posting these kind of posts. If you notice all he's done is attack Ireland, he's not even referred to the thread once.

In my defence, I was tired.
I slept and now I do recall at thread from yesterday, by englander, in which he went on about southern Ireland or something.
2 strikes.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

so, before anyone starts to jump any further down anyone elses throat, the americans have a runway in the west of ireland for american military planes.

so debating the advisability of upgrading the military defences of the UK is one thing, but going on about any sort american - british allegence is farcical.

True that.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

by the way, i have no idea what isreal or afghanistan have to do with a british missle defence system.

Again, I was tired.
I should just have deleted the post by englander, but I foolishly took the bait.

I mentioned Israel and Afghanistan because the invasion of the former hasn't really been all too successful and Israel are just as much a threat to stability in the middle east as Iraq was percieved to be, yet nothing has been done to stop them constantly attacking Palestine and treating palestinians brutally.
I know there are two sides to every story, but I see Israel as the big bad wolf in this story.

WhiteWashMan wrote:

persoanlly, i think its overkill, an unneccessary waste of money, and it will never be used. but hey, i dont have the word consultant in my job title

But there is a nice little flash presentation on the bbc website.
If anything, it's worth the money put into it if people can make flash presentations about how it works.