The British Establishment is nuts!!!!

[Sisko]

Well I am truely beginning to think this government has lost the plot. Today it was announced that the Para's, coming home from Afghanistan are potentially going to take a cut in pay, in total its being reported this cut will save the government a measly 4 million or so a year!!! Is that really worth it?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...ghanistan.html

Now I view this as being unacceptable because, our government is so willing to slash money in the defence budget, decommission carriers and scrap harriers, shut down RAF bases and cut troops pay. Now it was reported a few months back, that with these recent cuts a saving of some £600 million or so will be made or has been made!!! But wait.......last month we went gave some £650 million worth of aid to Pakistan so they can build schools for themselves!! Why should we give them aid when they're buying fighter jets and SAM systems from China?? Let them build their own schools with their own money, if they have money for military hardware, let them invest it in their own people!!!

And now we're pledging £110 million worth of aid for this Arab Spring pish. We're so "broke"......but we'll fork our plenty of money for anyone else except our own people who MIGHT just have a use for it!!!!

Very disappointing!!!! Please tell me there's someone somewhere who shares my frustration??

[sdjenkyn]

Shared and Im an American. What is wrong with our countries....seriously?! Will say I wish my country would look at slashing some of its defense spending tho so kudos to you Britts

[Copperknickers II]

Don't you know? We're training up the new generation of Pakistan children to be Paras instead, cause they're cheaper and less picky about spicy food in the mess hall.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Or, perhaps, it's part of our military strategy to rebuild the middle east so it becomes less of a platform for extremism, therefore saving the lives of our servicemen and shortening the war on terror and simultaneously increasing trade with them as their economies exapnd therby also shortening our own economic recovery. No? O.K. then.

[sdjenkyn]

Or, perhaps, it's part of our military strategy to rebuild the middle east so it becomes less of a platform for extremism, therefore saving the lives of our servicemen and shortening the war on terror and simultaneously increasing trade with them as their economies exapnd therby also shortening our own economic recovery. No? O.K. then.

Thats a wonderful theory...erm....strategy. Seriously though, hope it comes to fruition.

[Rex Germanius]

Don't you know? We're training up the new generation of Pakistan children to be Paras instead, cause they're cheaper and less picky about spicy food in the mess hall.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Or, perhaps, it's part of our military strategy to rebuild the middle east so it becomes less of a platform for extremism, therefore saving the lives of our servicemen and shortening the war on terror and simultaneously increasing trade with them as their economies exapnd therby also shortening our own economic recovery. No? O.K. then.

That strategy would be perfectly reasonable, if it wasn't so potty. It would take trillions to achieve that goal.

[(s)AINT]

I know. We have the same problem here in the States....

[Copperknickers II]

I know. We have the same problem here in the States....

Yes... the problem of laymen not knowing the first thing about military strategy.

[Thorn777]

Thats whats happens when you don't raise taxes. I see the moral outrage also spreads to wargame forums now.

[Imperial]

We (the world) are paying Pakistan to take care of their nukes. The nukes are like hostages, the Pakistani's tell us to pay up and the nukes won't mysteriously disappear.

[Manuel I Komnenos]

We (the world) are paying Pakistan to take care of their nukes. The nukes are like hostages, the Pakistani's tell us to pay up and the nukes won't mysteriously disappear.

lol. So true.

[mongrel]

We are going to spend up to a billion quid rearranging concrete in the Libyan Desert. I guess this is an accountant's way of paying for this.

[PacSubCom]

But wait.......last month we went gave some £650 million worth of aid to Pakistan so they can build schools for themselves!! Why should we give them aid when they're buying fighter jets and SAM systems from China?? Let them build their own schools with their own money, if they have money for military hardware, let them invest it in their own people!!!

The real goal though is to make central asia amenable to the welfare of a western investor class. Seen from this vantage point it does make sense of course, because the Pakistani client state needs to retain control over the population. The money for 'schools' is a way to bribe the normal people, so that they remain content enough to accept state repression (at least that's what they hope). At the same time Pakistan buys weapons to empower its all-important military establishment even more, because it guarantees control and the continuation of the client state.

It doesn't matter where these weapons come from, likely Chinese weapons are cheaper, and it could have practical reasons too. The main goal can be reached with Chinaware too.

British paras are not a very relevant piece in this scheme. They are just tools, and they will still do their "patriotic" job even when squeezed a little more. I'm sure British politicians believe in honour and patriotism and paras who are well provided for, nonetheless they must bow to their industry and finance paymasters (aka "the market knows best"). They also know that the bid for as large a share of political control over Pakistan they can get is more important. In conjunction with their western partners of course.

They are not nuts at all, somebody profits from it, it's just not you.

[saglam2000]

We all love low taxes and large bureaucratic governments at the same time, two things that are in fact mutually exclusive