DZJ
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Some good news at least; that flabby fuckwit Nick Griffin being told to fuck off back to his beer cellar by Margaret Hodge in Barking. (That and his tribe of brawling morons losing all of their council seats. Excellent).
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Fired one of those rifles last year at the UK Defence Academy at Shrivenham. Good fun.
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Do the people voting Conservative really want George Osborne as Chancellor? The very thought of that turns my stomach.
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Well done america, what a great role model you are...
DZJ replied to rhys's topic in Speakers Corner
I've watched that video twice, and I'm not sure it's at all clear cut. I don't think it was unreasonable for the pilot/gunners to decide that the group was hostile, and if the rules of engagement dictate that they can therefore open fire, then there you have it. Then, if you've decided that the group you've fired on is hostile, firing on the van seeking to recover wounded hostiles is logical too. I don't think you could expect the aircrew to identify (or even see) the children in the front seat. The violence of it is still shocking though, even if you can see the crews' justification. It does seem a tad dishonest, however, for the US Army's spokesman to claim that they did everything they could to help the children, or that they didn't know how they were injured. -
I hear the Medical Core tried to designate a carrier for the serpents of Caduceus, but they all died. It's all fun and games until the dog gets shot. I guess I should have included a picture. Poor thing. You can't trust the Welsh....
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Cry Havoc! and let slip the Cookie of war?
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Perhaps, but I genuinely can't remember the last time I saw a plaster wall on the high seas.
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I don't know, but I imagine on the high seas there's less chance of a round going through a plaster wall and killing your children....
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...the Royal Navy shoots up a target buoy that looks like a Spanish flag. The UK ambassador to Spain duly apologises for the insensitivity. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8371305.stm You've gotta love international relations.....
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For what it's worth, Channel 4 news in the UK this evening showed a protest which featured placards depicting Obama as both the Joker and an African witchdoctor, while others seem to have him down as both Hitler and Stalin at the same time....
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Your Opinion: History's Greatest Military Commander?
DZJ replied to masterblaster72's topic in Speakers Corner
Ought to say Unofficial History is very much a lighthearted and anecdotal book, but I'm sure you'd find Slim's experiences of skirmishing with Waziri tribesmen on the North-West Frontier, and leading the British intervention in Persia of interest all the same. Defeat into Victory meanwhile is campaign memoir par excellence. -
Your Opinion: History's Greatest Military Commander?
DZJ replied to masterblaster72's topic in Speakers Corner
Heh - duty calls! -
Your Opinion: History's Greatest Military Commander?
DZJ replied to masterblaster72's topic in Speakers Corner
Perfectly agree that Stilwell was a man of great personal courage and toughness. With his background, he was probably also the best bloke to deal with Chiang Kai-Shek. That said, I'm not sure of the wisdom of putting a pathological Anglophobe in charge of the US component of a British-led theatre. -
Your Opinion: History's Greatest Military Commander?
DZJ replied to masterblaster72's topic in Speakers Corner
On the subject of defeat into victory, how about Hugh Dowding? Had his 1940 campaign been unsuccessful we'd all be speaking German now. (Although I guess some credit goes to Goring and Hitler for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory) I think Dowding is the great example of how superior management of resources gives victory. He didn't have much, but he put a superbly efficient system in place for husbanding his resources and was able to watch his opponent slowly wither. (That said, I'm not sure the BoB was as close as is often assumed - German intelligence for one thing was so poor they never had a sound strategy). -
Your Opinion: History's Greatest Military Commander?
DZJ replied to masterblaster72's topic in Speakers Corner
How nice of you to say :) Ooh, where to start with Slim. First he gets command of Burma Corps and successfully extricates a coherent fighting force from the apocalyptic fiasco that was the defence of Burma in 1942. He then rebuilds the morale of a soundly beaten force, and melds British, Indian, Gurkha, and East and West African soldiers into a force that destroys the Japanese Army on the Indo-Burma border, and I believe inflicts greater losses than any other campaign against the Japanese. He manages the most operationally modern land campaign of the Second World War (if it was being described today the text would be full of words like manouevrism and airmobility) and yet does so with an appalling paucity of supplies and equipment, in the most unhealthy climate and most difficult terrain of any of the war. He was a general of immensely sound judgement, able to hold his nerve during a battle of attrition but also drive an all-arms blitzkrieg when the moment required it. Almost as an aside, he was extremely modest and rarely took credit for any of his achievements, and was able to work with difficult (to be polite) coalition colleagues like Stilwell. And his men absolutely loved him. His memoirs Defeat into Victory and Unofficial History are both classics and well deserving of a read. ...and I think that covers it! :)