Argentina has drawn Russia into its orbit

RUSSIA HAS ENTERED into an agreement with Argentina to supply them military equipment including 12 Sukhoi SU-24 all weather attack aircraft regarded as 'super fighters ' with a 2,000 mile range and carries laser guided missiles. In exchange Russia will receive beef and other goods now restricted to them because of EU sanctions.

                

               We have a stipend of just four RAF Typhoon fighters and 1,200 troops defending the Falklands island, and according to Air Commodore Andrew Lambert, of the UK National Defence Association, quoted by the Sunday Express; “The Ministry of Defence should be worried. 

                "It always trots out the mantra of reviewing force levels but the only real solution is to deploy a sizeable force of Typhoons, at least a squadron, to buy us time to formulate a proper reinforcement package.” 

TIME AND TIME again it seems, our politicians sell this country's defences short. Between the war to end all wars and the Second World War our defences were cut and cut again throughout the recession – but, also because our politicians were naive enough to presume the continent had learned its lesson, and would never take up arms again after the butchery of the First World War.

                

                 Defence is the first expense to be pared back in an economic crises. Churchill fought for rearmament at a time when appeasement held sway. He won in the end, but buy then it was nearly too late and would have been without the Americans being seduced by Churchill's gift for rhetoric, and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour, which broke the American isolationist rampart.

               

                 Even after the Second World War when the West was in the grip of the Cold War our politicians fought to pay for their borrowing by cutting our defences, leaving the USA to carry the full burden during the Cold War in Europe through NATO.

                

                Then came the end of the Cold War. To the spending and borrowing politicians it was just like Christmas. Military budgets were halved drawn and quartered by different political parties in an attempt to buy votes; either through lower taxation or public spending. No historical parallels were ever drawn – as with the First World War. The ending of the Cold War was also seen as the war to end all wars; this time based on ideology. The Soviet Union was defeated as was their great cruel Marxist experiment…where, after this, were the West's enemies to be found?

               

                In Europe (now the European Union), all members cut back on their defences, and spent billions upon billions on all sorts of public expenditure – and, as usual left the Americans to give the continent some kind of adequate defence via NATO.

EVEN ON THE EVE of the UK's war with Argentina, the British Defence Secretary John Nott was in the middle of yet another 'defence-review', a synonym which has always been seen as meaning further cutbacks for the military… now it is the NHS that faces such reviews.

                

                This Russian deal with Argentina should be a wake-up call, but our somnolent political class will remain soundly asleep, and will continue to pare back our defences, ignoring any that they consider to have only an outside possibility of a threat to the Falkland isles once more.

               

                It will be 2020 before our very latest 60,000 ton aircraft carrier comes into deployment. The carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its crew of F-35B fighters have left a window of opportunity to Argentina if Russia gives the country what it needs to attempt another try at the Falklands.

                

                We no longer have the Hermes to deploy, or her sister ship Invincible. We are left without a carrier fleet until 2020. There may be another Argentina crises just around the corner depending upon Argentina's success in its trade links with Russia.

                

                 Air Commodore Andrew Lambert suggests, from an RAF perspective, that we need a squadron of Typhoons on the Falkland's to counter the latest Argentinean military acquisitions from Russia. Will they be forthcoming? Do not count on it. Politicians will always stick to their script regarding the economy, and the chancellor holds the prime ministers attention – both ministers want to serve a second, third, and if possible, fourth term. While the chancellor hopes to become prime minister after the second term, as did Gordon Brown.

                

                 Ambition, ambition, ambition. The three A's of all democratic politicians. They will always plan their own political destiny, and put it before the national interest - power and only power matters. Even if it means governing a banana republic. Power is power, and even in a banana republic enough wealth can be accrued through corruption to allow them to set up home in Miami after they retire or are overthrown.

IT IS ABOUT TIME that our democratically elected political leaders rediscovered their original function as leaders of our nation… seeing it as their primary defence; and not the NHS that has dictated the public spending agenda since the very beginnings of the Welfare State.

                

                 The NHS is a money pit. But as far as defence is concerned it can be financed without any further larceny perpetrated on the taxpayer, or cuts to the NHS. What must be done is to eliminate our oversees aid budget and leave it to charitable giving through the various charities; and when emergencies arise like earthquakes, tsunamis and Ebola, the government should do what it is now doing. We do not need a department of international development and aid, which gives between £9-10 billion annually to different countries, in the hope of gaining private contracts from the governments they are helping.

                

                 Defence demands that its proper needs are met. If another Argentinean crises occurs at some time in the future, when Argentina feels emboldened enough through her arrangement with Russia to make another challenge against the Falklands - how are we supposed to reply?