US Army Europe can’t rely on UK military?

As an adjunct to my previous article on the malaise afflicting UK defence, with General Hughes the main US Army general in Europe citing concerns over UK defence spending and NATO inter-operability the problems seem deeper-seated.

Both UK and USA hardly covering themselves in glory in voting against the UN ban on nuclear weapons last month - and surprising that Holland is the only non-nuclear power to also vote against the ban. Perhaps a few US military nukes are still on Dutch soil (a few teensie-weensie ones that have accidentally been lost on purpose?) - are some of the Saddam 15 minute nuclear howitzers there?

It would hardly be as unusual as the Trident mishap of nearly nuking Disneyland in Florida last year and not releasing the details until after the parliamentary debate on Trident?

And what is it with the US military building their own golf courses - surely some crazy gold ones would be cheaper and easier and free up the Seabees?

And despite the vigorous efforts of Carolina’s Nikkei Haley and new DFID head Matthew Rycroft, UN concerns over Syria’s chemical weapons – the first and hopefully last use in the 21st century – have been sunk by Russian efforts.

And as with UK aircraft carriers the Russian Defence Minister citing them as only a larger target which is true in the age of submarines and drones for such vanity projects – and at best job creation schemes for the shipyards of the North east and Virginia. And it shows an undue Russian emphasis on viewing the West through the binoculars of the Cold War.

Putin’s possible re-election in 2018 hardly a shoo-in with threats now from public protests and other candidates, and expansion of the Magnitsky sanctions with Latvia now joining Canada and UK, that relying on the KGB playbook of old won’t suffice. Hillary Clinton citing Putin’s interest in Siberia and bears perhaps more relevant in the Bering Strait road-rail tunnel and China’s OBOR in boosting Russia’s economy beyond the sunset industries of oil and gas.

Here in East Kent one would question KCC council and its $3BN annual spend still investing in tobacco and fossil fuels for its public sector pensions – and sure-fire way to increase Climate Change and reduce the value of its payouts.

And for Parliament and the May government not to recall the military to explain does suggest both an Empty Parliament and May gone before May (who wants a Winter election with more excess OAP deaths from the cold to put an x next to some empty manifestos? - foxhunting though, everybody wants foxhunting or sell your granny and her house for dementia?) as in office but not in power.

New defence Minister Gavin Williamson’s sharpened carrot perhaps only of use for UK’s frozen pensioners and food banks. Could the German government do better – their economy surging and defence spend below 1.3% and even ending conscription. Albeit all 6 of its subs out of action suggests a greater burden of patrolling for UK and the US navy already crashing in Asia from fatigue.

Surely he UK and German car and defence industries should be able to come up with a viable parts supply chain between them for NATO?

US Amry Europe and their logistics and engineering teams might well want to ensure thats in place as well as a review of the functionality of Europe’s rail systems. If Brexit did happen – stop laughing at the back – then Dover and Rotterdam would grind to a halt. Those beans and bullets would be rotting and rusting on the dockside.

And in shunting US and NATO troops eastward and south US Army Europe would be best-placed to advise on bottlenecks it faces in defending Europe? Already the European Medicines Agency and European banking Association likely headed east to Bratislava and Austria even Greece.

A trend likely to continue in what I describe as a Sarajevo Shift policy. Why is US Army Europe quartered safe in the wealthiest and safest parts of Bavaria rather than redistributing those US tax-dollars and Cold War dividend in boosting the Visegrad and Balkans nations?

US Army Europe is more than welcome with USAF and USN to boost its troops in UK – although 8,000 seems about right – and no doubt a welcome alternative to the Yankee Go Home culture of many parts of Europe.

Certainly a Greece and Turkey conflict a hidden disaster for Europe and NATO of far greater impact than Russian ethnic border-nibbling in Donetsk – hence Greece going bust in overspending on defence, and the Cyprus divisions continuing. Both hardly a success for NATO and EU after over 40 years.

The Royal Navy seeming to use most of Latin America's cocaine in fuelling its submarine orgies. The Minister for Sex Toys Mark Garnier (heir to the shampoo fortune too?) might want to take a sneaky peek through the porthole if he’s too busy to help Liam Fox drum up trade. While the Tunbridge Wells Kinky Sex Festival – sort of like Burning Man in Nevada with a damp cagoule although one dead and one medevaced to hospital suggests a wider need of SAR helicopters for those empty aircraft carriers or not – could feature a Royal Navy parade along with the Notting Hill carnival fun and games on the rates during the hurricane season.

And the UK military allowing junkies to continue military training - and the only NATO nation with child soldiers- suggests some US Army rigour is needed after the Lariam malaria scandal (another one for you Ambassador Woody? Or GAVI and Unilever or P&G?).

Even Ramsgate's General Lord Dannatt, hardly no goddam-pinko-commie-fag-peacenik, seems to think UK troops seem in more danger from their own generals than anyone else's. While Surrey Police and the Deepcut barracks murder-suicides have killed more UK soldiers than Putin.

And they get free dental care which is unusual now in the NS and USA's medieval healthcare system - Shadow Trade Minister Chi Onwurah pulled away from Newcastle (UK not Sydney) celebrations of Martin Luther King to detail the shocking statistic of hospital A&E used for emergency dental repairs. Should US Army Europe airlift in some dentists to the NHS?

While German troops in Eastern European perhaps an unwelcome reminder of pre-NATO years but all six German subs out of action for want of spare parts suggests a lack of NATO planning. And selling Israel subs without escape hatches surely won't be the first time the German state has put Jews in confined spaces with no escape?

Liberation Route Europe developed by Martin Schulz of SDP - and now launching in USA - surely a greater vision of Europe in the 21st century from the dark years of the last century. Certainly more than the backward-looking Brexit silliness.

While ISIS taking back control of Iraq ad only now after 3 years the last ISIS town in Iraq being defeated – and ASEAN ISIS surges eg Marawi in Philippines -suggests a lack of USA and UK effort on reconstruction rather than just bombing wedding parties or Kent's useless idiot Sally Jones.

Both as welcome as Agent Orange or white phosphorous - and UK is still selling cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia along with is Sangcom and GPT and Al-Yamamah guns-for-bungs projects? Saudi Arabia with more RAF jets than the RAF or the RN Bahrain base suggests MOD funds have been spent on dodgy deals in Arabia rather than defending Europe.

Only NATO Turkey shooting down Russian military jets for border incursions. Presumably NATO will be more circumspect over Russian frontiers too. While the Russian Defence Minister rightly suggesting UK aircraft carriers are merely a bigger target speaks volumes for Russian scepticism of the West and NATO military planning.

Europe’s enemies in recent decades have been the military dictatorships in Africa and Arabia whether Saddam or Gadaffi - and broken nations from Sierra Leone to Somalia to Afghanistan.

A Cold War of tank battles and tactical nuclear weapons over Germany and Poland thankfully now unlikely.

UK troops based in Germany now simply funding the bierkellars of Bielefeld rather than Broadstairs. While the MOD Manston fire station here in East Kent more bloat and duplication with its Hampshire duplicate. Surely UK MOD firefighting along with the military police overdue mergers and reductions, and clearer civilian police oversight rather than the military kangaroo courts that would shame even One Essex Court, rather than inter-service budgetary bunfights.

Prince Mo taking the helm on Neom (and Desertec-style projects in North Africa) suggests his Vision 2030 of peace and prosperity can be realised. Indeed how long before North Africa and the Levant are members of the EU? A decade at most?

US tourists might want to find it easier to holiday in the Med as well as India with UK support?

GCHQ now steaming open every email and Facebook post must be able to do better than that? Perhaps not as the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall and 9-11 took our expensive security services by surprise. Next even Mugabe or Obiang will fall without notice?

Those UK chiefs of staff Barron and Zambellas hardly inspiring in suggesting North Korea might nuke London unless parliament coughs up more cash for failure or the revolving door arms companies they front. And Lord West not backward in coming forward on the potential threat of the Swiss or Andorran Navies. The Royal Navy little more than a water-bus for the Royal Marines in future?

An argument surely for detente and disarmament - the UN nuclear inspector were right after all on the lack of Saddam's nukes. Surely theit should inspect reductions in USA's and Russia's arsenals?

And the list of nuclear accidents form Godthaab to Palomares Spain or Damascus hardly inspires confidence. Nor the sabotage threat on Douel in Belgium and safety scares with Kent's Dungeness closing down sooner rather than later. Another one for US Army Europe review must be Europe’s nuclear plants – an NBC backpack bomb all too feasible?

The UN nuclear ban, must also pose a tricky problem in the threat of war crimes or crimes against humanity, for nuclear powers now? Certainly without any reduction and disarmament programme.

And NATO's first active missions have hardly been a success in Afghanistan and Iraq and the Mediterranean refugee crisis. It's a lot of tax-dollars to do so badly from the shores of Tripoli to the Horn of Africa.

And the USA taxpayer may earmark their own inquiries of why 90% of US troops are based in the Lower 48 much as every UK soldier is sat in their barracks in UK. While practising digging trenches and graves couldn't our uniformed Johnny Appleseed's make themselves useful and plant some of UK's 11M new trees too?

And surely Panther Gold with the Irish Guards on the Kwai river on the Thailand-Myanmar border is a template for wider UK efforts given the ready availability of Shan heroin as well as Helmand heroin - and the highest ever Uk and USA drug deaths. They’ll be back bearing shamrock for St Patrick’s Day in March and engineering return visits for their Thai comrades?

Perhaps a US Army Europe remit now Russia is contained within its borders may well be the flood of heroin and cocaine into Fortress Europe through organised crime gangs. Forza Italia's election win in Palermo Sicily and rumours of Mafia funding is hardly likely to reduce the flow of drugs through the narco-states of West Africa and Southern Spain, France and Italy.

Surely it's absurd for US Army Europe not to have details of Europe's organised crime gangs and police activity? Malta’s unsolved half-dozen car bombs linked to drugs and people trafficking and ISI funding.

A platoon or two of US Army Europe troops are always welcome to visit Chief Pughsley's Kent Police and Dover Europe's largest port as part of Operation California - perhaps with Europol and Frontex and DEA and FBI a wider effort is required? 90% of EU illegal drugs seized around the Golden Triangle of London, Paris and Amsterdam. Could you bring a Starbucks and Dairy Queen shop or two too?

Doitung surely a template not just now in Colombia and the FARC peace process but more widely in Latin America and the Caribbean rolling back the drugs crops and routes?

And the medical divisions of US Army Europe must surely be the flag-carriers for the 21st century whether TB in Europe or Ebola in West Africa and plague in Madagascar. Bill Gates can't do it all - and surely it's absurd that USA's largest Marshall Plan investment, Pfizer-Discovery Park science labs here in East Kent are twiddling their thumbs on vaccine production.

1M TB deaths won’t cure themselves will they?

And with 220,000 UK citizens diagnosed with pneumonia – and US Army troops – each year and over 200 viruses suggests a failing on both research and adequate vaccine stockpiles. If it’s Winter then as sure as eggs is eggs the UK’s vaccines have run out even without AMR research. US Army Europe might want to take hold of more stocks of Unilever’s Lifebuoy antibacterial soap for itself as well as in its handwashing civil reconstruction work.

UK might even need a few US Army Europe doctors to administer whatever flu jabs crop up.

Hopefully better than the Royal Marines and Royal Navy efforts on Resilience or the tax havens of the Caribbean this hurricane season - the worst beach landings since Dieppe. Or was it just a badly-organised beach holiday?

Let's hope UK military efforts in Estonia or Latvia aren't a similarly badly-organised stag do on the rates.

Certainly Kent's Ghurkas leading the way in Afghanistan and Kent's Royal Engineers in Sudan - the Sahel and Volga the tripwires to Fortress Europe.

And Kent no stranger to Cold War politicking and waste: a Russian submarine berthed off Chatham Dockyard and nuclear bunkers dotted around the countryside. The latter best only for Microsoft database storage from those NHS cyber attacks again? The NHS database and DNA rollout under siege from Crapita incompetence.

While General Hodges might want to run up the white flag given MOD efforts on procurement and planning - aircraft carriers without aircraft (do not tell the Russians!) and the Warrior armoured car farce not dissimilar to the Bradley vehicle farce of $2M each refurbishment of 380 of them as the troops to use them are cut. And where would you park 380 armoured cars? Canada? Kent struggles to be rid of the Boris German water cannon, up on bricks and out of sight of parliament.
Just possibly $700BN each year might be too much defence spending even for the Pentagon? The techwar of bombing mudhuts with million dollar missiles across the Sahel surely counter-productive in all sorts of ways?

And renewables now the power source of the future with Germany and Italy - the former with its Jamaica Coalition - closing down all their nuclear sites and coal too. Perhaps General Hughes could send a telegram back across the Atlantic to POTUS Trump to get on board as he doesn’t seem to have got the message on Climate Change and defunct technologies such as coal, tar sands and nuclear.

Equally defunct must be delays on UK and USA cooperation on their DARPA programmes - surely Israel might want to join too as their efforts on destroying nuclear sites might be relevant for North Korea rather than just Iraq and Syria or Iran. Or even Axis of Evil nations such as Pakistan building the North Korean bomb and Myanmar's and Syria's chemical weapons programmes.

Even USAF welcome guests 65 years ago at Manston airport UK's most corrupt airport with the Infratil monitors and aquifer fraud.

How foolish that Afghanistan and Iraq and now Syria and Libya and North Korea nor viewed as the nation-building work (not just building a building or building a replacement) of decades rather than months.

Let's hope General Hodges is as vocal as General McChrysal in his interesting Team of Teams book.

Surely a military lead in Africa will mean as with Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia that every problem looks like it can be bombed into submission (20% of drone strikes with civilian casualties just collateral damage? UK claiming no civilian deaths at all from its Syria strikes sounds excellent if it’s true) rather than a more considered view on nationalist or ethnic or religious conflicts.

It's hardly outrageous given the recruitment problems to reduce UK army strength from 77,000 to 50,000 and halve the RAF and RN with robotics to 15,000 each. Indeed a more Canadian approach need of a single military command under the Army - an Admiral for every ship must be wrong.

That figure again: $700BN per year. The whole UK defence budget of c.$40BN would be a mere rounding error for General Hodges Pentagon team. While the UN estimates delivering all the UN SDG goals would cost just $50BN through to 2030.

In the aftermath of the generals testimony to parliament, the City pages of the Sunday Times in its “Tin helmets! Defence giants I the line of fire” by John Collingridge details a retrenchment of UK defence spending – GKN (the former builder of Spitfires and Lord Hezza’s Westland helicopters)losing not one but two CEO’s in months and troubles at a USA aerospace factory.

Ultra Electronics making parts for tanks and warships also lost its CEO amid a 24% fall in shares amid delays on the USA’s Sparton $235M anti-submarine project. Maybe General Hodges ought to sharpen his pencil rather than Gavin’s; carrot and take a more precise look at where UK-USA defence efforts are in retreat?

So far the only US (or German) subs worth having are at Subway.

And The Sun City pages on Friday were insightful as always from Tracey Boles with Qinetiq falling 7% - the supplier of UK’s firing ranges surely vital in expanding Sahel training efforts?

Graham Hiscott Finance Editor of the Daily Mirror reporting in detail on the £770M EU fine for Scania lorries and a cartel price-fixing with Daimler, VW, DAF etc that affects 90% of medium and heavy trucks and 75% of inland transport in Europe that must impact on US Army Europe’s logistics chain and taxpayer. The various Freight Associations with undue influence herein Kent on roadbuilding and lorry mega-parks.


US Army Europe’s more vigorous efforts could even pay dividends on East Kent’s Hornby, Scalextric and Airfix iconic Great British toy brands. A third equity raise for another new CEO to buy his own company, suggests longer dole queues here without more rigorous efforts. An Airfix F35 might be not much of a best seller or even the real-life version but surely a US Army Europe boxset of soldiers is overdue even an upgrade of the US Marines Harrier model?

DARPA must also be relevant for its peace dividend of interstate highways and internet and GPS than just its military applications.

US Army Europe's mission accomplished from the Eisenhower era of not just to the outskirts of Berlin, but now beyond the Elbe and Oder to the Russian frontier.

Bases such as Moron near Almeria (as with Trump perhaps that doesn't translate into American English) and Bari must be as relevant now whether Malta's carbombs or Greece-Turkey border sabrerattling or divided Cyprus through basketcase Libya and Syria to the Sahel and Sudan and Somalia.

Without US Army Europe kicking up a gear on UK and NATO military reform then the Harlem Globetrotters might be the best weapon in the arsenal of democracy?

Time for Change
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