An Involuntary Transformation
The idea that nobody thought any of this through is an extraordinary admission… If you are having problems integrating people when immigration is at a relative historic low, why would you think you could do it better when it’s at an all-time high? […] It’s an odd thing to do, societally and culturally – to, for instance, without any mandate from the general public, decide to become something totally different… It’s an odd thing – for a society to effectively decide to abolish what it has been hitherto, and to become something totally new.
Douglas Murray, speaking recently in Norway. The talk begins around one hour seven minutes in. Via Simen Thoresen in the comments.
Your work is a tremendous resource.
I’m assuming future generations will build some kind of statue.
Muldoon: show me an army anywhere that says “it’s OK, we have enough money”.
People here rail about how bureaucracies have a drive to expand and never have enough. Well, armies are no different. The Soviet generals would have been demanding more, even as it broke them. That’s what generals do.
No matter how much you pour into a military, large sections of the population will demand more. The US navy is as powerful as all the other navies of the world put together. With Marines and Air arm better than most of the world’s armies too. Yet apparently manages to complain about being underfunded. No amount of money will satisfy them.
Politicians do sometimes cotton on. NZ lost the fighting arm of our Air Force because it is a very expensive luxury. A couple of squadrons of up-to-date jets would be a ridiculous extravagance. They could make it to strafe Sydney, but not make it back. A jet arm couldn’t support our army in any realistic way in the Pacific.
Why bother, other than to make the brass proud? So NZ focuses on what it needs, an army that can fight in the Pacific islands. Non-conventionally, because opponents won’t be conventional.
Surface naval vessels are floating deathtraps in European waters. They are a waste of money built only to keep admirals in jobs. Submarines, fast attack boats and missiles are the way of the future, if you are interested merely in defence. That the Royal Navy doesn’t like it, doesn’t make it untrue. But where’s the prestige in submarining and torpedo boats?
I’m fully on board with nations being able to defend themselves. I’m no pacifist and I accept others will take advantage of weakness.
But the “underfunded” line is getting old. Admirals want big ships. Generals want divisions. COEs the world over are like that — prestige drives them. That doesn’t make them right.
So NZ focuses on what it needs, an army that can fight in the Pacific islands. Non-conventionally, because opponents won’t be conventional.
We’ll ignore China, but unconventional forces rely on both conventional and unconventional air support, and even F-15s can do CAS missions. An A-10 or AH-64 is better, but I digress. Short of shoving something out the back of a C-130, the only thing New Zealand has capable of shooting back is maybe the P-3s if they are equipped with the requisite hardpoints for ordnance, so I guess the Kiwis are SOL for that support unless they get some help from the Australians, PACAF, or the 7th Fleet.
If we want to talk about just the land force, there is only one brigade (BDE+ if we throw in all the reserves) worth, total, shooters and support pukes, so they are basically taking the Costa Rica approach of hoping nothing really untoward happens, and as we all know, nothing could possibly go wrong in the region what with China and the worlds largest concentration of Moslems in your post code.
You appear to like subs, OK, but the Royal Navy only has 10, and even assuming the impossibly of all 10 being FMC and at sea 100% of the time, that is still not a whole lot of defense just for the North Atlantic.
“Underfunded” may be getting old, but that does not make it untrue, unless one thinks that, as pre WWII, training using wooden machine guns, (or, during the halcyon days of Jimmy Carter putting a .22 rifle barrel in a TOW missile tube), is a swell idea for when the balloon goes up, or that aircraft designed and put into service 60 years ago can fly indefinitely, or ships don’t need refurbishment and upgrading, etc., etc.
. . . but unconventional forces rely on both conventional and unconventional air support,
Hmmm. Considering variations . . . .