On this Remembrance Day/Armistice Day/Veterans Day comes news of the death of John Nott, British Defence Secretary during the Falklands War. This was his finest moment, as Mrs Thatcher's very straight man for the announcement of the first victory of that conflict - the first re-capture of British sovereign territory:
The "Rejoice, rejoice!" moment, as it came to be known, did not go down well with the anti-Thatcher types. But, if you have to take up arms against the foe, a ten-week war ending in the total destruction of your enemy is the way to do it. Period joke from the spring of 1982:
Q: Why has General Galtieri ordered a glass-bottomed boat?
A: To inspect the Argentine Navy.
Galtieri didn't need his glass-bottomed boat. Four days after losing the war, he was out of office and stripped of his presidential pension. The junta commenced to disintegrate and is known today as the última junta militar - the last junta - because there have been none since. Indeed, military dictatorship - hitherto a way of life in Latin America - crumbled across the region in the ensuing years, so discrediting was defeat by the toothless arthritic British lion. Mrs Thatcher wound up liberating a continent.
Not a bad ten weeks' work.
Ah, but there's not enough dough in it for serious warmongers. From The Wall Street Journal earlier this year:
How War in Europe Boosts the U.S. Economy
Not such a boost for young Ukrainian men - or indeed late middle-aged Ukrainian men, which is what they're down to - and indeed not such a boost for the Ukrainian economy, which, in a land demographically devastated, will take generations (if ever) to recover.
But, at the commencement of America's uniquely unique "peaceful transition of power", it helps to remember that this is how these guys think:
Top defence contractors poised for $52bn cash bonanza as orders soar
Five top US defence contractors are forecast to generate cash flow of $26bn by the end of 2026, more than double that in 2021...
In Europe, national champions BAE Systems, Rheinmetall and Sweden's Saab, which have benefited from new contracts for ammunition and missiles, are expected to see combined cash flow jump more than 40 per cent.
Gee, for all that new weaponry, you'd think the beribboned buffoons of the Pentagon could occasionally win something - and by "win" I don't mean droning a family of photogenic Kabul moppets on your way out the door. Otherwise, the ability to stack up that big a "cash bonanza" without achieving any strategic goals in the national interest risks giving the impression that it's just a racket.
It didn't used to be. A nano-second after Mrs Thatcher's victory over Argentina, all the experts immediately agreed on the need to throw it all away and reward the Argie junta for its aggression by giving them joint sovereignty over the Falklands. The PM didn't waste a lot of time on that one: "We were prepared to negotiate before" she responded, "but not now. We have lost a lot of blood, and it's the best blood." Or as a British sergeant said of the islands: "If they're worth fighting for, then they must be worth keeping."
Likewise the blood spilled in the endless unwon wars of the twenty-first century was "the best blood". But there was no "negotiation", just wholesale surrender and abandonment that left the Taliban with more territory than they controlled on September 11th 2001 and bequeathed them one of the most advanced and sophisticated armouries on the planet. It would be difficult to conceive a more humiliating and dishonourable end to a war.
And yet not a single man (or even tranny admiral) in the entire hideous corrupt and dysfunctional Pentagon paid any price for it. In fact, all those "highly decorated four-star generals" are raking in the big bucks, they're having their dress jackets lengthened for an extra row of medals - and Kamala's cooing "Thank you for your service" to the Cheneys while the guys with the blown-off limbs are living on food stamps. Joey Jones returned from the war with half his body but a very clear-sighted view of the last quarter-century:
When you die OF OLD AGE you'll be buried with Halliburton money. Your kids and grandkids will inherent Halliburton money. When you cry at night over means tweets, you'll wipe your tears with Halliburton money. My friends in Arlington died earning Halliburton more money. https://t.co/m9lUJDOsgm
— Joey Jones (@Johnny_Joey) November 1, 2024
The Joint Chiefs and their minions are, other than the pundit class on cable TV, the clearest example of the central problem in Washington - that it is set up to reward failure, and very handsomely. So this statement from President-elect Trump is modestly encouraging:
This is huge, fantastic news. Pompeo and Haley are unrepentant neocons, and Pompeo was up to all kinds of nonsense to thwart Russiagate collusion investigations during the first Trump term. pic.twitter.com/7mJ04KkAxG
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) November 10, 2024
Pompeo is the guy who hatched a plan to assassinate Julian Assange while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, and Nikki Haley prompted the only memorable moment in those stupid Trumpless primary debates: as you know, she is all about the inviolability of Ukraine's borders, yet, when asked by Vivek Ramaswamy, was unable to name a single of that country's provinces: a textbook example of the warmongering-as-know-nothing-tourism - Afghanistan on a Billion Dollars a Day - that has delivered the world into the hands of America's enemies.
China is taking over every island in the British Commonwealth without firing a shot. Islam is taking over Europe with (as Gaddafi predicted) its wombs. The boots-on-the-ground crowd had the run of Washington for over two decades, and it failed, spectacularly.
Proposed Executive Order for Day One, five past noon on January 20th: Move the Pentagon to a strip mall on the edge of Cleveland.
~We have more Remembrance Day content for the eleventh day of the eleventh month, including Mark's video poetry selection of In Flanders Fields, his Saturday show on the music of the Great War, and his Sunday Song of the Week on a particular favourite, "Roses of Picardy" - all part of a very busy weekend at SteynOnline, starting with the Deep State's move to Plan B. For his weekend movie date Rick McGinnis considered John Wayne in the cockpit, while on Sunday Steyn re-evaluated where we were and where we are now. If you've yet to hear our latest Tale for Our Time, Jack London's account of the rise and fall of China, you can find Part One here, and the conclusion here.
~We opened The Mark Steyn Club over seven years ago - May 6th 2017 - and are thrilled by all those across the globe - from Fargo to Fiji, Vancouver to Vanuatu, Surrey to the Solomon Islands - who've signed up to be a part of it. We have quite a bit of fun in The Mark Steyn Club, with audio adventures, video poems, planet-wide Q&As, and much more (heart attacks permitting). We appreciate the Club is not to everyone's taste, but, if you're minded to give it a go, either for a full year or a three-month experimental period, we'd love to have you. You can find more details on The Mark Steyn Club here - and, if you've a loved one who'd like something a little different for a birthday or anniversary, don't forget our special Gift Membership.
