Vallonman

@trygerspud @JakeWSimons 100% agree ref Gov ambition not being matched to resources. But the UK military leadership, both in theatre & at PJHQ, consistently failed to heed warnings or act on US advice in Basra instead citing NI exp as giving us an advantage over the US. Fry & Shaw two of the worst.

@crashmat89 @JakeWSimons They’re not mutually exclusive. In the UK we have had governments that have consistently willed ends for which they have not attached sufficient resources. The troops to task paragraph was a bad joke.

Listening to retired generals like this makes you realise why Britain is in such a terrible state!

@trygerspud @JakeWSimons The UK lost Basra due to their own political & military failings not the US’s. By consistently attempting to deescalate every issue rather than address the true causes the UK allowed the militia, aided by Iranian proxies, to push us out of the city. The article isn’t accurate.

@crashmat89 @JakeWSimons Nonsense. By 1990 our forces were already too small for sustained operations in Basra with overtly political and financial constraints always tying commanders’ hands. This isn’t far wrong ft.com/content/259109…

@dave24144975 @MartinTwigs68

“As I watch the events unfold in the Middle East and the reaction to the predictable weaponisation of the oil price, and listen to the red-faced, wet-palmed performances in Westminster, I recall the raised voice of the then-UK Defence Secretary Des Browne in 2007, when he insisted to me as Commanding Officer 22 SAS that, in spite of all the intelligence and evidence to the contrary, ‘Iran is not Britain’s enemy in Southern Iraq’. He was wrong about that then, just as those are today who still maintain that the IRGC is not a terrorist organisation. Or who insist that negotiating with Iran will deliver anything other than further death and more humiliation. Or indeed that failing to support the US does anything other than strengthen Tehran’s hand. Sometimes, the pearl-clutching international  ‘conflict resolution’ experts are wrong. And the only way to salve any dignity as a nation or as an individual is to face the evil and fight”.

This man is Navy Seal and Medal of Honor recipient Ed Byers. He describes a hostage rescue and hand-to-hand combat he faced with the Taliban in Afghanistan. This video is worth the 8 minutes of your time.

@TheStoicSailor Everyone knows this is wrong including you. Turning up in the Wardroom in red chinos is one thing, but delivering a CLD to the Ships Company whilst looking like Mr Tumble is entirely another. You’d lose trust & credibility as a minimum & probably far worse.

Walk into a Wardroom or an Officer's Mess, and there will be some brightly coloured chinos knocking about somewhere. The Officer wearing them is no less competent just because they wear smart clothes that have a bit of colour.

@JasonOw55271825 @DrChrisParry The subsequent whitewash of the incident was to protect government ministers & senior Naval officers & to turn a PR disaster in to some sort of deescalation success. A total failure of leadership with the actual people detained the least to blame for their predicament.

@JasonOw55271825 @DrChrisParry That’s total BS. The post incident investigation highlighted major failings including inadequate PDT, no prior mandatory conduct after capture training, total failure to understand the ROE by all involved including CoC onboard & lack of formal orders prior to the Op + lots more.

Command team and boat officers should have faced a court-martial.

Once a traitor, always a traitor. After years of betrayal to the EU, Dominic Grieve now sells out free speech in the UK via having chaired the work group which came up with Labour’s Islamophobia definition. Yes it DOES DO HARM, Mr Grieve!

@FedPride @PeterWestmacott 100% @PeterWestmacott is a perfect example of the modern FCDO mandarin. More interested in representing enemies of the UK than his own country or its allies.

@PeterWestmacott It’s unconscionable that Peter Westmacott has never accounted nor apologized for the Islamic regime murdering 35,000 civilians in 2 days. Selective outrage.

It is unconscionable that there has still been no attempt by either the US or Israel to account, let alone apologise, for the killing last Saturday of more than 150 people at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls school in Minab, southern Iran.

@abuseofpower @DavidPa99715224 @Hick324 @AlistairCarns I gen will get you an invite. If you knew the first thing about @AlistairCarns you’d know he’d be dropping cunts left, right & Chelsea in a heartbeat.

This is @AlistairCarns - my MP.. He's voted to remove trial by Jury. Traitor.

@SimonForrest11 No surprise to read this. I’d do absolutely ANYTHING to keep my kid out of the Scottish state education system. It’s an absolute shambles, curriculum full of EDI & LGBTQ+ bullshit & significant violence & disruption in classrooms. No amount of💰can fix SNP ideology.

Approximately one quarter of the school children in Edinburgh are privately educated. As a measurement of our society, this is a fail ... a social abomination. Rich & poor, them & us, have & have nots - institutionalised. Scotland needs to be more like Finland.🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇫🇮

@thejohnbergen @Jesse_Norman @PennyMordaunt @spectator @FT Comedy at its best.

@Jesse_Norman @PennyMordaunt @spectator @FT It is extraordinary, especially given he is by far the best CAS/CDS for decades. A brilliant man!

Quite extraordinary that Number 10 has been briefing against Sir Rich Knighton in @spectator and @FT. I cannot recall any previous case in modern times when a government has anonymously undermined a commanding officer in the course of a military conflict.

I'm old enough to recall the 'MilTwitter' mob (failed authors/commentators) rush to Knighton's defence, insisting he was 'hilarious' under pressure. Not so hilarious now is he. Political appointment of a man who spent 38 years flying a desk is a national embarrassment.

@CatherineWest1 Absolutely shameful response to @Geoffrey_Cox speech. You personify everything that is wrong with modern day politics. Your lack of grace, decorum & and even common decency is evident to us all.

Justice delayed is justice denied, but unaffordable justice is no justice at all... My latest blogpost on the Courts and Tribunals Bill👇 catherinewest.org.uk/latest-news/20…

@pinstripedline @wedcarver Talk me through the circa 473 x 2*, 3* & 4* roles you're thinking are absolutely crucial to be retained no matter what. Which ones can never be de enriched rank wise? Be specific.

@wedcarver Talk me through the roles you're thinking about here, which ones are the problem and which would you scrap - be specific.

This is not accurate by @afneil - the figure of approx 30 2*s covers roles across all of Defence, a global organisation of approx 250,000 people - the RN has very few Admirals doing 'Navy' jobs (about 10) - and they are generally very overworked. The few 2* I have personally known are usually doing 6-7 day weeks, usually 12-16hr days with few real 'perks'. They carry significant responsibility, serious regulatory (e.g. Aviation & Nuclear) challenges and have to run a force that operates on land, on the sea, below the sea and in the air - as well as across the UK. This is not a homogenous blob of people - its 30,000 nuclear engineers, chefs, weapons maintainers, scientists, infantry men, anti-tank gunners, pilots, divers, hydrographers, cyber experts, communications specialists, intelligence gatherers. The responsibilities are vast. My challenge to anyone who moans we need fewer senior leaders is to ask "which post would you cut" and "who will do the work that needs to be done when it has gone". Strangely they never have an answer that doesn't involve more Admirals...

A society which puts a higher value on state handouts to its able-bodied citizens than on measures to protect those citizens from internal crime and external threats, is one which risks becoming decadent. Such decadence is itself a standing invitation to other states more barbarous and more self-confident than us to chance their luck. I would say that defence has been cut back too far in our Western countries. Combined with a lack of resolution among some Western leaders, this is giving the wrong signs to dubious political figures in the ex-Communist world and dangerous exponents of force in the Islamic world. This is not unconnected with the social malaise that is affecting our countries, where we see family breakdown, rising crime, and a huge dependency culture. We have to get our priorities in taxation, in spending programmes, and in wider social policy back in line.

@benmoores2 @patricklittle19 @warmatters I haven’t mentioned any stories but your hubris shines bright. I don’t think either of us will gain anything further from this exchange so have a good evening.

@crashmat89 @patricklittle19 @warmatters The daily mail may have told you that but fortunately in the real world its 99% nothing like that. The world is complex and the problems we face reflect that. Mouthing off anonymously that you war stories are better than someone else's isnt going to make the world less complex

People need to wind their necks in when taking ad hominem cracks at CDS.

@benmoores2 @patricklittle19 @warmatters I think it stems from the arrogance & disdain that the CS seems to have for the people on the receiving end of their appalling decision making. That & the complete lack of self reflection on how their behaviours have shaped the current crisis we as a nation find ourselves in 🤷🏼‍♂️

@crashmat89 @patricklittle19 @warmatters What always surprises me is the unpleasantness of these anonymous accounts, the deep bitterness combined by with a desperate need to be recognised must be an awful place to be. None of the most experienced, highly decorated service personal I dealt with ever talked that way