Keep up the good work...
This is a further example of the ineptitude of the Ministry of Defence in the space of just one week. Beyond the debate about the very presence of the UK on Cypriot soil, is that of the decision-making of those leading the Ministry.
The debacle concerning the sailors ‘captured’ by Iran, and the inane decision to allow them to sell their stories to the press smacks of an arrogance and simplicity that should well have died in the late summer of 1947. The tactics employed in both cases represent a foolish attitude to sovereign nations, a fundamental distaste for genuinely democratic ideals, and a basic misunderstanding of the sophistication of the public. Attempting to win a propaganda war, while denouncing Iranian media treatment of the captured sailors was narcissistic, hypocritical, and just plain unnecessary. If we (the British) can pride ourselves on engaging in ‘quiet diplomacy’ and using peaceful means to resolve and indeed, prevent international disputes, why compromise this with grandstanding statements about the integrity of a state, and attempts to assert our strength…the former reveals a noble sophistication, but which is ultimately undermined by the stink of insecurity…
The hypocrisy only continues when politicians continually talk about not having any dispute with the ‘people’ of a given state, but merely their government: so insulting their very integrity, and then revealing how shallow this respect is, by making clumsy attempts at media manipulation both at home and abroad.
The arrest of Marios Matsakis was a foolish move, and as Chris Davies succinctly notes, "a trivial matter will now become a major political issue threatening relations between Cyprus and Britain." To the wise old men of the MoD, I salute you - if nothing else, for being laughably consistent...
The debacle concerning the sailors ‘captured’ by Iran, and the inane decision to allow them to sell their stories to the press smacks of an arrogance and simplicity that should well have died in the late summer of 1947. The tactics employed in both cases represent a foolish attitude to sovereign nations, a fundamental distaste for genuinely democratic ideals, and a basic misunderstanding of the sophistication of the public. Attempting to win a propaganda war, while denouncing Iranian media treatment of the captured sailors was narcissistic, hypocritical, and just plain unnecessary. If we (the British) can pride ourselves on engaging in ‘quiet diplomacy’ and using peaceful means to resolve and indeed, prevent international disputes, why compromise this with grandstanding statements about the integrity of a state, and attempts to assert our strength…the former reveals a noble sophistication, but which is ultimately undermined by the stink of insecurity…
The hypocrisy only continues when politicians continually talk about not having any dispute with the ‘people’ of a given state, but merely their government: so insulting their very integrity, and then revealing how shallow this respect is, by making clumsy attempts at media manipulation both at home and abroad.
The arrest of Marios Matsakis was a foolish move, and as Chris Davies succinctly notes, "a trivial matter will now become a major political issue threatening relations between Cyprus and Britain." To the wise old men of the MoD, I salute you - if nothing else, for being laughably consistent...
posted by Anonymous at 12:10 PM
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