Modern defence
16/03/08 13:01 Filed in: World
A different post this one. It came out of a
conversation I had with a friend over lunch, in which
we covered the war in Iraq, nuclear war, gas prices
and strangely enough cheese! Yes we do talk about
some real interesting stuff over lunch
I'm not sure how the conversion got started, it was
probably some news item on the radio, since this week
marks the 5 anniversary of the start of the war in
Iraq. However it got started, my friend pointed out
that we spend huge sums of money on defense, but what
dose this so called defense actually defend us from?
Good question. And he has a point.
In the modern western world and particularly for an island nation as our selves the threat of a conventional invasion is now over. Most of our military spending, it seems to me is still geared toward cold war type thinking. In this sort of war it would be possible that we face a large scale invasion as we where threatened with in the second world war. But I don't think if the cold war, ever did 'hot up' it wouldn't be that sort of war anyway. Because both sides had nuclear weapons and could risk that these weapons would sit unused while the enemy overruns there country, this pretty much guaranteed that any open war between the two sides would quickly go nuclear. Both sides knew this and that (probably) what stopped it from ever happening. In that sort of war, there is no point in invading since there would be nothing left worth in invading. In fact there would probably be nothing left to doing the invading.
But I digress away from my point.
Now that the cold war is really over and in the modern world there is no real point in invading anything. It's simply not worth it economically speaking. With todays global markets, invading any country any where in the world is probably only going to cost you dearly in the long run. Not only is the cost of the invasion, but also the cost of losing for a probably a long time, a market for some of your resources or products.
Take the current situation between the U.K and Russia. On the face of it, it would appear that we heading back to a cold war type situation (diplomats expelled, bombers testing air defenses etc.), but this I not the case I don't think. Why would Russia want to wage a conventional or even nuclear war on us now. If they did, they would lose a huge customer for there natural gas. No if they where going to go to war with us, it would economic war, fought with, you've guessed gas prices.
So with this in mind, do we really need to spend all of this money on these 'cold war' type defenses?
No, I don't think so. I think (and this could get a bit controversial) that we could defend this country against the modern type's of threats much better for a lot less. We have a large(-ish) army, probably partly due to our commitments to NATO, which is in it's self kind of lost since the end of the cold war. Yes we use these forces to defend and help the small colonies we have left but what else do we need them for. Peacekeeping operations. Yes these have noble aims, but have peacekeepers ever really made any difference. If two sides really want to fight, then let them. Also the is the question of if we have the moral right to try and enforce our ways on another people. By this point your probably thinking that I would support a full pull out of our troops from Iraq. Well actually no I don't, not yet. Yes we should have never gone in there, but we have made this mess now, I think we are morally obliged to help clean it up.
With the money saved from losing the 'old world' military forces we could build much better forces for today's sorts of threats. A proper boarder security force for a start, since organized trafficking of drugs and people is surely a big threat to our nation. And intelligence is probably the best weapon against the sort of terrorist threat we face today. Did America's huge military might protect it from the attacks suffered on September 11th 2001? Also a truly modern threat against us, could come from the internet, we need to be ready for these sorts of attacks, especially since in any economic war internet attacks are probably going to be one of the main weapons used.
Now I know probably all of the idea's I've had here have been considered, but probably not the scale I'm suggesting and they probably never would be, since there are too many jobs tied up with sort of large scale defense. Also there is a lot of tradition tided up in these sorts of forces, many regiments have there own long histories and yes, I think the bravery and sacrifice that so many have made should not be forgotten, ever, and Britaina did rule the waves at one time, but I think it's time to move on, the world is.
Okay thats it for this post, hopefully I've not scared off too many readers. I will be doing other posts like this, but not to often, so don't worry the normal tecy and sic-fi stuff will be returning soon!
Good question. And he has a point.
In the modern western world and particularly for an island nation as our selves the threat of a conventional invasion is now over. Most of our military spending, it seems to me is still geared toward cold war type thinking. In this sort of war it would be possible that we face a large scale invasion as we where threatened with in the second world war. But I don't think if the cold war, ever did 'hot up' it wouldn't be that sort of war anyway. Because both sides had nuclear weapons and could risk that these weapons would sit unused while the enemy overruns there country, this pretty much guaranteed that any open war between the two sides would quickly go nuclear. Both sides knew this and that (probably) what stopped it from ever happening. In that sort of war, there is no point in invading since there would be nothing left worth in invading. In fact there would probably be nothing left to doing the invading.
But I digress away from my point.
Now that the cold war is really over and in the modern world there is no real point in invading anything. It's simply not worth it economically speaking. With todays global markets, invading any country any where in the world is probably only going to cost you dearly in the long run. Not only is the cost of the invasion, but also the cost of losing for a probably a long time, a market for some of your resources or products.
Take the current situation between the U.K and Russia. On the face of it, it would appear that we heading back to a cold war type situation (diplomats expelled, bombers testing air defenses etc.), but this I not the case I don't think. Why would Russia want to wage a conventional or even nuclear war on us now. If they did, they would lose a huge customer for there natural gas. No if they where going to go to war with us, it would economic war, fought with, you've guessed gas prices.
So with this in mind, do we really need to spend all of this money on these 'cold war' type defenses?
No, I don't think so. I think (and this could get a bit controversial) that we could defend this country against the modern type's of threats much better for a lot less. We have a large(-ish) army, probably partly due to our commitments to NATO, which is in it's self kind of lost since the end of the cold war. Yes we use these forces to defend and help the small colonies we have left but what else do we need them for. Peacekeeping operations. Yes these have noble aims, but have peacekeepers ever really made any difference. If two sides really want to fight, then let them. Also the is the question of if we have the moral right to try and enforce our ways on another people. By this point your probably thinking that I would support a full pull out of our troops from Iraq. Well actually no I don't, not yet. Yes we should have never gone in there, but we have made this mess now, I think we are morally obliged to help clean it up.
With the money saved from losing the 'old world' military forces we could build much better forces for today's sorts of threats. A proper boarder security force for a start, since organized trafficking of drugs and people is surely a big threat to our nation. And intelligence is probably the best weapon against the sort of terrorist threat we face today. Did America's huge military might protect it from the attacks suffered on September 11th 2001? Also a truly modern threat against us, could come from the internet, we need to be ready for these sorts of attacks, especially since in any economic war internet attacks are probably going to be one of the main weapons used.
Now I know probably all of the idea's I've had here have been considered, but probably not the scale I'm suggesting and they probably never would be, since there are too many jobs tied up with sort of large scale defense. Also there is a lot of tradition tided up in these sorts of forces, many regiments have there own long histories and yes, I think the bravery and sacrifice that so many have made should not be forgotten, ever, and Britaina did rule the waves at one time, but I think it's time to move on, the world is.
Okay thats it for this post, hopefully I've not scared off too many readers. I will be doing other posts like this, but not to often, so don't worry the normal tecy and sic-fi stuff will be returning soon!
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