Great Britain is indistinguishable from France when it comes to tenacity and grit. This is an girlish empire that, under Henry VIII, hid behind the skirts of empty reformation theology rather than face up in a manly way to the faith whose duty it was and is to profess. The result? It’s there for all to laugh at: it’s called the Anglican Church — or what remains of it anyway.

So Henry should have recognized that the pope was the word of god on earth? If he had done that there would have been no Elizabeth and without her support would the Age of Enlightenment have happened? Henry VIII was a tyrant, but breaking with the catholic church was his crowning achievement that help solidify the end of the dark ages. It was one of the defining moments in the history of the world. Without Elizabeth increasing England as a navel power we would probably have been a colony of Spain.

BTW – “alphie” once earned the moniker “The Typing Telephone Pole” over at Protein Wisdom when he trolled there. You can only ignore it, you cannot talk to it.

British officers, including generals, have complained that US forces just don’t “understand.” Apparently US forces assumed they were sent into combat to fight. I think England’s army has become dominated by officers who are afraid they will lose their commands if they lose even a single soldier, sailor or pilot.

Look at what happened in the confrontation between the Royal Navy and Iranian gun boats not so long ago. Somehow the captain of a Royal Navy ship left a bunch of ill-trained and clearly inexperienced sailors to fend for themselves. I guess the captain didn’t want to have to make a decision in case his men were confronted with potentially deadly force.

At the time, I couldn’t believe it. With commanders like that, it’s a miracle ordinary British soldiers anywhere stand and fight. It definitely is a top-down problem, as many others here with more armed-service time than myself already have stated.

We are dealing with an enemy that knows no honor, maybe they believed that the Brits would grant them some security then WHAM!

Massive offensive is put on them.

Its nice to think that the scum we fight sure wish they had a TRUE, safe area.

But they dont and thats good.

What ridiculous nonsense. Any country could address fertility issues and set upon repopulation successfully if it it didn’t have a large immigrant population seeking to replace it with violent force.

aengus on August 4, 2008 at 11:15 PM

And if pigs had wings, they could fly. Steyn points out the fact that no country has every recovered when their birthrate has fallen significantly below replacement. There are numerous historical examples of this. The only support for your argument is misplaced hope.

in which case your attitude is appalling. Christ didn’t command you to consign non-Christian societies to the “cultural crapper” but to spread the word of the Lord.

Presumably, then, you would also consider Christ himself to have an appalling attitude, when he stated, “Wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Why, how dare he insinuate that most people are doomed. How cynical!

(Yes, that’s sarcasm. I’m not arguing with Christ; I’m arguing with you.)

Four thousand British troops – including elements of the SAS and an entire mechanised brigade – watched from the sidelines for six days because of an “accommodation” with the Iranian-backed group, according to American and Iraqi officers who took part in the assault. …

Ahh yes,the very brave Sir Robin and his merry band of appeasers.

The alliance between the US and Britian goes back a long ways and I have no doubt that the British Soldier is up to the fight.
But to cut deals with the enemy and stand by and watch while the green and fragile make up of the Iraqi army and the overworked US Army get into the fight is just unforgivable.

I mean for God’s sake,Canada and Poland have kicked more butt in the WOT than our British allies.

We have certainly made mistakes,but we have never sat on our butt’s when it came to kicking butt.

What the he!! were they thinking and on what planet would this have worked on?

If it’s “Brown” flush it….

Unfortuantely it may be in vogue soon enough here again if ol’ moonbeam takes another stab at it…

It doesn’t take a psychic to understand fertility trends.

You’re obviously an acolyte of Mark Steyn. I suspected this but did not want to make a presumption.

Italy (and every other European nation) has a choice: quick cultural death via immigration, or lingering cultural death via immigration crackdown.

What ridiculous nonsense. Any country could address fertility issues and set upon repopulation successfully if it it didn’t have a large immigrant population seeking to replace it with violent force.

As for the US, it remains to be seen whether we follow Europe’s path to cultural suicide.

Yeah, right. If 70 million Mexicans come to live in California it won’t be because of Europe. Every silly liberal idea of the twentieth century has come out of the US and Canada, mostly from campuses like Harvard and Yale in the 1970s.

The only way to avoid cultural death is by making babies in sufficient numbers, and that’s simply not going to happen in Europe.

More Steynian nonsense. Even if Europeans were to have lots of babies there would still remain the question of what to do with the millions of Muslims in Europe intent on conquest. Simply having slightly higher population numbers even within a non-liberal society (or “fascist” in American-speak) like Italy would not suffice.

I’m hopeful, but the same spiritual degeneracy that is destroying Europe, has put down roots in the US.

You’re not “hopeful” in the slightest. The “spiritual degeneracy that is destroying Europe” partly originates from, and is in the process of destroying, America.

If you’re not a spiritual degenerate then presumably you are like myself a Christian. in which case your attitude is appalling.

Christ didn’t command you to consign non-Christian societies to the “cultural crapper” but to spread the word of the Lord.

My bad.

There’s more fortitude in the Danish government than there is in the Bush Administration, who sought to throw Anders Fogh Rasmussen under the bus for not capitulating over the cartoon crisis in the interest of “understanding”.

splashman, you forgot Denmark.

someone2 on August 4, 2008 at 9:21 PM

My bad.

You’re not psychic . . . How do you know the US will remain intact in its historic American, English-speaking form 40 years from now?

aengus on August 4, 2008 at 9:15 PM

It doesn’t take a psychic to understand fertility trends. Italy (and every other European nation) has a choice: quick cultural death via immigration, or lingering cultural death via immigration crackdown. The only way to avoid cultural death is by making babies in sufficient numbers, and that’s simply not going to happen in Europe.

As for the US, it remains to be seen whether we follow Europe’s path to cultural suicide. Current birthrate is very near replacement rate, but that could change dramatically in fifty years, as Europe has proven. I’m hopeful, but the same spiritual degeneracy that is destroying Europe, has put down roots in the US. At the very least, America will take a lot longer than Europe to go down the cultural crapper.

Good going, Blair. How many radicals have been deported so far, under your “things have changed” policy?

(Answer: none)

Dream on cano…America is broke thanks to the Iraq fiasco.

No more war for the anger management dropouts until we’ve paid off the debt and balanced the budget.

alphie on August 4, 2008 at 8:45 PM

…and this is your brain on drugs…

All of this is true because the Times of London says so? Whatever happened to being sceptical of the media?

The Times of London has a very good reputation for getting things right but you raise a good point.

Splashman on August 4, 2008 at 9:07 PM

You’re not psychic. What the world will like 40 years from now is anyone’s guess.

How do you know the US will remain intact in its historic American, English-speaking form 40 years from now?

At least in Italy they’re making a serious effort to crack down on the swarm of immigrants. Sheesh.

Let their sailors and marines get taken by a rag tag bunch of Iranian guerillas, too.

Negotiated for them.

Just balless and gutless. This is pathetic.

Alphie! I’ve got some Army buddies that would like to talk to you about your asinine comment of th U.S. Military taking orders from Saudi Arabia.

Fair enough but I didn’t read any reports of the Dutch making secret pacts with the Taliban. So what gives?

aengus on August 4, 2008 at 8:01 PM

You apparently missed the word “incorrectly.” My criteria for applying the label “worth a damn” have nothing to do with levels of military support, and everything to do with societal fortitude. The Dutch, along with the rest of western Europe as we know it today, will not exist at the end of this century, if indeed they make it past the midpoint.