No it's not. They're involved in the decision-making process, and they decide how much money to give to MoD and the military.

For example one Canadian made LAV costs the same 10 Australian made…

The NZ Humvee and LAV vehicles are death traps to mines, with flat bottoms and stuff all armour underneath. But they cost shitloads, it is unfair to criticise…

The problem with a lot of Cold War era weaponry, at least in the UK, was that it was designed around a strategy of "fight like…

The vehicle's fatal flaw, a 2008 Pentagon inspector-general's report found, was that its "flat bottom, low weight, low ground clearance and aluminum body" left it vulnerable to IEDs.

Aluminuim! Jeez!

Didn't the Royal Navy experiment…

There are no coincidences Graeme, but what is the link ?
The main conflict in Wind and the Willows is man verses society, a conflict you as a lawyer must be very familiar with.
Your…

One of the three soldiers killed in Afghanistan on Sunday had criticised the Prime Minister for not attending the funerals of two soldiers killed earlier this month.

...

Just days before he was killed, Corporal Tamatea voiced his belief that the Prime Minister should have stayed in New…

Of course, I go by another name for purposes that involve earning money. If I posted stuff that wouldn't offend those who give me said money, my posts would be decidedly dull, sadly.

9/11 short summary – 15 Saudi Arabians (+ 4 other Arabs) from an organisation headed by a Saudi Arabian, that was financed by Gulf State (Saudi) Arabs and dedicated to impostion of a Wahhabist religious cause crashed 4 planes in…

Try reading your own link
From the Middle Ages to around 1750 part of today's Afghanistan was recognized as Khorasan.[32] Two of the four main capitals of Khorasan (Balkh and Herat) are now located in modern Afghanistan. The country of Kandahar, Ghazni and Kabul formed the…

One of my neighbours up North is John George. So I suppose it's not that unusual. My point was that the more "enthusiastic" opinions here are, more often that not, from people with "two first names" spooky huh? ;-)

Garth?
Hmmm, two first names eh, that's "unusual"

So you know who really did it, then? Do tell.

Whoa! Retro.

?

Although we'll always have a steady stream of troops killing themselves in accidents, a 'military accident memorial' doesn't have the same ring.

Forget that…

Before the crack of noon! Ungodly. ;-)

Yes, two very worthwhile segments, as was Tracy Watkins talking about polling- which I suppose will become more important for me to…

I know. It's actually better than it was last week. This stuff is surprisingly difficult in this sort of setting.

a technical/production matter however.... the lighting seemed lacking to this non-expert viewer.

I know its not a studio but a converted venue, and you've mentioned the budget is tight... but the guests faces were at best, only marginally well lit, and yours (Russell)…

That is surely more to do with geography rather than political influence. It begs the question of what exactly is a country, is a…

his blog seems more philospophical in tone.

Thanks! Here's the episode on-demand.

It's almost always the…

Effectively, there weren't any guys immediately before the Taliban, just warring militias backed by the Saudis and Iran respectively. The interim government never really had a chance.…

When the government is shelling cities with tanks and artillery – not an insurgency.

Um just because some European drew a circle around that bit on a map and called it a single name does not mean it was a single country. The people within that circle still considered themselves mortal enemies of their neighbours.

I get…

There IS a reason people still talk about him. Seriously how loony do you have to be to think that was a good plan.

Been…

They did the same to the Russians and the same to the British and the same to each other.

The key to understanding how that is possible comes…

One thing that struck me was the bizarreness of how the fairly minimally equipped, outgunned and technologically primitive insurgents…

Indeed, and the bloodiest part of recent history was not the Russian or the US invasions but the civil wars of the 1970s.

I suspect the aftermath of the withdrawal will look much the same.

It's a little more complex than that. The increasingly educated and wealthy Pakistani middle class – with years of westernised secular schooling – has also become radically…

With Saudi oil revenues approaching 1 billion a day the oil may run out but the cash will…

This is just as much of a simplification as the opposing view.

Afganistan is not and never has been one unified country. The people in each region view themselves as distinct from people in other region. It is not simply a religious distinction, it…

If there were ever any "good" options, there certainly aren't now.

That is an American-centric book and American-centric review, when America is not central to the political culture of the region. The Western conceit is that it and it alone bestrides the world causing things to happen – playing to that sells books. But America merely got involved and…

The US election rhetoric is unbelievably tribal and mainly full of loud shouting.

Here are some facts* on Paul Ryan and women.

And the media coverage is usually very biased. Here's a rare case [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2A4YOfj0qaw&feature=player_embedded|of a reporter actually knowing her…

It seems to be a plague on…

Umm... like the other 'stans or the Caucasus? Places where Stalin did get up to all sorts of shenanigans like deporting the entire population…

Quite, and their time in power is often poorly understood. For a long time they clearly had broad popular support, even for their most heinous actions. Of course if you openly didn't support you were marked.

We look at something like the demolition…

If you're talking about the Taliban (who are a diverse group, granted) it's much more accurate to call them students than farmers. They partially fund themselves by "taxing" poor farmers. Most…

Surpising unanimity really – and they all seemed to have a good grasp of the topic too. Native Affairs does a cracking job for all of us.

I think the insurgent groups have an ability to throttle the amount of trouble in any area, including allegedly 'peaceable' ones, as they wish. If things get hot for them, they can hide their weapons and melt back into being farmers. When they need to,…