When the United Kingdom Coalition Government was formed not so long ago, the official line that was constantly being trotted out was:

“Britain is broke. We have to cut the deficit, and that means painful cuts to public spending.”

So you can imagine my cynicism upon reading the following news report regarding the (then) situation in Libya:

“Chancellor George Osborne sought to reassure the public that the cost of the war would not spiral out of control, saying it would be ‘in the tens of millions not the hundreds of millions of pounds’

He said it would be paid for from the Treasury’s reserve, rather than the main defence budget.

The Government expects the air campaign, featuring RAF Typhoon and Tornado jets plus Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from the submarine Triumph, to cost around £3million a day, though the Daily Mail has calculated that the first three days cost nearly £6million each.

But costs and the length of the deployment will soar if either of those scenarios prompts a need for ground troops.”

So this “war” would be paid for from the Treasury’s reserve, rather than the main defence budget?

Thought we were broke?

On the other hand, there is always money for war.

If you study the blueprint for the “wars” both the UK and the USA have been involved in over the years, it would read something like:

(1) Pick a weaker country with assets you want to get your grubby hands on:
Oil, prime real estate to build military bases on, minerals – doesn’t matter.

(2) Overthrow the current government or leader by overt or covert means. If one man (or woman) is in charge, you can label them a dictator if you want.

(3) If it’s a whole government, make a fuss about the fact they aren’t very democratic.
Insist the people need to be liberated.

(4) Crank up the terror alert.
Tell the people whose country we are about to invade – sorry – liberate – would not hesitate to interfere with our way of life.
If you can get a few religious or racial slurs in there, even better.

(5) Ensure the media are onside whilst peddling propaganda in favour of war.
People should be afraid.
Because you said so.

(6) Send in the heavy hitters.
Whilst dropping bombs, ensure that you use the words “Liberate” a lot, and mention the fact that the people of that country should be grateful we’re dropping bombs on their houses.
After we are finished bombing, they can vote for a new leader/government.
With our guidance, of course.

(7) Whilst the bombing campaign is in operation, ensure someone from the Armed Forces appears on television to state that “We will try to minimize civilian casualties” – even though this is blatantly untrue.

(8) Overthrow the government/leader of bombed country, ensuring we replace them with “Western Friendly” puppets who will do what we tell them.

(9) Reconstruct country.
Send in contractors to suck money out of bombed country.
After all, it’s their fault we had to come over and reduce their country to rubble. Why shouldn’t they contribute financially?

(10) Move on to next country.

Copyright © Mark A. McPherson 2012.
All rights reserved.