Johnny Mercer
This is a great read.
It's especially illuminating for those of us who were not warriors but sent others to die in wars. Every MP should be confronted by the horrors that we imposed on our soldiers. If Mercer is successful, his parliamentary work could transform politicians'
assessment of future military adventures.
The abiding core belief of a majority of MPs is that Britain should always strive to punch above our weight militarily. Why? It always results in dying beyond our responsibilities.
Johnny Mercer became an MP because he is haunted by the gulf of perception between the calm all-powerful Commons and
the screaming terrors of the Afghan Wadis where soldiers must obey. During the most intense period of the Helmand campaign that he describes with penetrating insights, the Commons was being soothed with reassuring faked optimism of military and political successes.
Mercer's portrait of war is unheroic and self-deprecating. We are spared no details of the sordid foul reality of the soldier’s life
and the inevitable dreadful injuries and deaths. The nobility is in the strength of the bonds of friendship and mutual loyalty that overcame rejection of the perils of the tasks imposed on the soldiers. All MPs who were in the Commons for the past 20 years will shudder with guilt at the fragility of equipment and our failures to drag out the ugly truth of missions that were unwise and sometimes impossible.
The arrogance of military leadership and the gulf between heroic fantasy of a politician’s war and the full reality of a soldier’s war has not changed. One MP recently described Passchendaele as a “wonderful battle”. Not to my father, my uncle and millions of others whose lives were damaged or ended by a futile WW1 that achieved nothing but WW11.
The author admires the courage of his fellow soldiers and writes with empathy on his grief at their deaths and injuries. He is angered by the the failures to care for those maimed in body and especially in mind. He appears to accept the need for the Helmand campaign even though it promised to be a pacific incursion without bullets flying. From a handful of British fatalities between 2001 and 2006, Helmand led to the deaths of 450 UK soldiers. He writes that the Taliban 'counter-insurgents' started the war. Did they? My understanding is that a PM wanted to score a specific victory in his name by eliminating the drugs trade in Helmand. It was suggested to him as an attainable goal. Parliament did not vote on Helmand. Ministers of two government swallowed and preached the myth that defeating the Taliban in Afghanistan would protect the UK mainland from terrorism. It was a comfortable lie to still consciences.
Mercer is a fine sensitive writer. The truth leaps from his pages, unadorned, brutal and funny. His early life in a strict Baptist family, his wayward ambitions and a splendid single-minded determination to achieve his political ambitions are revealed with startling authenticity. It's comforting to know that the apparatchiks in the Tory Party are as crassly arrogant and wrong-headed as they are in the other parties. Mercer's election is a triumph for the naive but determined political novice. All that effort must be rewarded by political progress with his ideals.
I would like to help.
On Charlottesville and the sadistic cowardly murder:
Its never enough for these guys. People can have all the advantages yet piss in someone else's water supply. The state does support you. It doesn't others. That's quite clear.
Trump is playing you for his own petty institutionally recognised 'honour' (I'm the boss) but really its just a rich man's plaything. Its about profit.
The alt right are only about spoiling things. Your leaders would give you a pittance to support them. Trump, Bannon, Spencer, Jones: miserable creatures, not even any bravery or honour. You are feeding on their leftovers. You have no leadership. They may do some brain work, doesn't mean you can't do the same.
Full of yourself on racial grounds? Self righteously playing the victim? Despising others because you are led by the nose by some hollow gobshite? Think again. It comes back to have, and have not. That is the real interest.
Strong should attack weak says the NAZI idea which alt-rightism is festooned with. That is literally the behaviour of animals. Instead of sheltering, offering conditions of recovery they will attack, shun or leave to die. If that is what you allow in power then we are all more or less fu'''ed.
Jewish people aren't your enemy. Social and economic predators are.
Posted by: Ad | August 17, 2017 at 12:07 AM
Neither party covered themselves in glory. I imagine that many MPs are still around that were involved in the fateful decisions. I'm sure there are many who would like to see it all forgotten and to not be confronted with important truths, some of which Mercer talks about. (going by your informative and interesting take on the book).
So, yes, they'd rather not hear about it but they all should. Its a dereliction really to ignore it out of convenience, to let things just roll onwards without censure or reflection. It lets them off the hook. "Thats finished, thats all in the past" would be the majority's attitude, and that Is a serious error, deadly serious. I humbly suggest that you and Mercer would be amongst the few who we could look to on that. You've done so much, but you should not be deterred by the refusal to take notice or the lack of interest of those with responsibility. Just following America into wherever they target is not a good plan. The history of the 'war on terror' testifies to that. Its a mistake to tie the country's foreign policy to the whims of a foreign government and support them unconditionally from a position of obedience. Our honour is our own, and it is precious, as are our principles and interests. That should be what guides such decisions.
Things change, and they should. America, and Britain to an extent in support of it, has a machine that oppresses, robs and deceives. It pulls a lot of strings. They will tend to find excuses to put that machine to work but will not usually come up with cohesive and well thought through moves in terms of the interests of the people they govern. In fact they have made messes in foreign regions, that has to stop. We've seen their attitude when they claim their superiority (economically, politically, militarily) will bring easy victories and in the lack of planning for occupation and post invasion leading to more conflict and instability. Money, though, is still made and the 'machine' sustains itself.
How can ignoring the truth of historic failures lead anywhere other than disaster? I would venture to say that stupidity breeds stupidity. It attracts disaster. Once a slide starts it can gather momentum. Its not so hard to imagine politics and the economy going down the toilet. Not that it is all rosy at the moment by any means, I've said as much recently, but there it is.
Posted by: Ad | August 15, 2017 at 10:58 PM