You may recall my recent article regarding Gordon Brown's statement on ridding the world of cluster bombs. This weeks edition of Private Eye has a 'Defence Special' and they have this to say on the matter:
"The British prime minister didn't just sign up to the treaty, however: his diplomats added their own legalistic clauses. The first said: "Cluster munition means a munition which contains more than 10 conventional sub-munitions." And why the magic number 10? Er, because one of the Americans' favourite weapons, the CBU-97, contains just 10 "sub-munitions" and so squeaks through the amended treaty.So it seems like it is business as usual and nothing has changed!
Everyone knows it is a cluster bomb - CBU stands for Cluster Bomb Unit - but thanks to Gordon's representatives, it is still free to cause unintended damage and fatalities."
In addition to this Private Eye reports that the Defence Training Review contract that which was won by the Metrix consortium may cause a serious threat to the front line."Documents produced following a recent meeting of the “defence training review executive board” reveal that the project, under which training will be handed to the Metrix consortium through a 30-year PFI contract worth around £11bn, poses catastrophic risks on the front line. A confidential “post meeting read out” of deliberations led by deputy chief of defence staff (personnel) Vice Admiral Peter Wilkinson exposes “major affordability issues” requiring a “realistic contingency plan” for the deal to privatise training on everything from tanks to fighter jets. Hinting at serious difficulties on the deal, the “affordability gap” could not be disclosed even to the project board as it was “too sensitive”."The article goes on to explain that there was a list of 15 significant risks to the project. One of these being “Trained output fails to meet requirement of operational commands”. Another risk to the project is the loss of the existing trainers who are unwilling or unable to move to the new defence academy in St Athan.
Click on the image below to view the full article:
Greg Lewis wondered amongst other things if the MoD would ban any nations from training at the academy. He contacted the MoD under the Freedom of Information act and the response plus an article he wrote for The Big Issue can be found here.
13 comments:
What do you conclude from this, Cherie?
I'm afraid that I have to chip in here on the side of cluster bombs.
I'm well aware that they cause utter misery when used in close proximity to a civilian population, but as a battlefield weapon they are extremely effective.
The problem we have seen in both Iraq and Afghanistan is that they have been deployed in the wrong situations. They have been deployed in civilian areas, as well as over some military targets, that have been abandoned afterward by the military and left to the civilian population.
In both conflicts the battlefield is the whole country, they should never have been deployed in either.
Oh crikey James, where do I start?!
Basically on the cluster bombs GB has done a bit of spin, the end of the Private Eye article explains why ;-)
Defence Training review I don't need to conclude but...
transfer of ownership/debt
appease the welsh assembly
make out saving for the tax payer
etc etc
So where does that lead us?
Morningstar - Don't worry about commenting :-)
I hate war and weapons and all that stuff, but (sadly) it is necessary.
My point about the cluster bombs was GB making a cheap spin in his favour!
Unfortunately that's all we get from Gordon, spin, and it's his own fault if he can't afford more expensive spin ;-)
Morningstar - Sadly yes... but I will still try to make a difference in my own way ;-)
"but I will still try to make a difference in my own way ;-)"
Clearly you didn't read my new years predictions, lol.
Ginro - Now you have got me wondering what those predictions were?!!!
Well wonder no more, lol.
Predictions for 2008
Have you ever played Worms?
It wouldn't be the same without cluster bombs...
Ginro - Wonder how many of those I fulfilled with this post ;-)
Crushed - I have been told the original version is good but not played it.
Unfortunately, the Private Eye article is wrong on a number of points. In fact it is wrong in almost every way. The clauses they refer to are not in the treaty and the CBU-97 is banned.
The article was just an effort to have a go at Brown without really looking into the facts.
Richard - Thanks for the clarification.
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