After long and agonizing…no, sorry, start again. Alright, I’ve finally decided to add something to the “About” page – happy? No, some bloody people….(grumbles)
Right! I’m currently somewhere in my twenties, whereabouts, I don’t know since I lost the map when I went to university (someplace called Oxford Brookes, rather good really).
As for relevent stuff to this blog: right, the webname – wien1938 is my web/forum name. It refers to the 2nd Panzer division as my first 1/72nd scale tank model was a Panther G belonging to that division.
The blog name was recently changed as I’d decided on a change of aesthetic approach to the issues which concern me.
I am much more conservative than I used to be but I think this is a result of reflection and experience.
I’m an atheist, it’s a position that I arrived at when I was ten by independent thought. I’d run into school religion, tried to believe but couldn’t – the stories kept falling apart when one used (gasp) logic and the rational position was that there is no deity or mysterious entity. Just us. Yet there are important truths in religion (which is another aspect of my intellectual and moral growth – isn’t humility wonderful?!) such as community, morality and the unconscious bonds.
You can probably guess most of my political outlook by reading the blog but then, hey, I get one or two hits a day – and those probably spam machines… I do support Israel, why? Because those who don’t usually want to exterminate/remove the inconvience. Yes, it is not necessarily antisemitic to criticize Israel, but it often amounts to the same thing – it’s like pornography (which I like – fuck you, third-wave feminism), I know it when I see it. See Alan Dershowitz and the Three D’s.
I’m also a bit of a militarist. I’ve always loved the military and all things war related. I believe that Britain has criminally underfunded and misused the Armed Forces for far too long and that we should not be afraid of going to war to protect our national interests or to do what seems to be the right thing (like Iraq – second case scenario).
I still admire Tony Blair, but I do think he was wrong on some things – like Global Warming (pseudo-marxist religion, v.dangerous).
(Takes cover, awaits torrents of abuse).
Neoconservativism and the West 
Thanks for the add to your blogroll! I returned the favor.
– JOS
If you are admire the military as you say you do above then enroll and join one of the armed forces. What better way to acknowledge this. Don’t leave it to other people to do it for you when war is needed.
It now seems like Iraq was (I didn’t think so at first) a mistake and the US and UK should have concentrated all the efforts in Afghanistan.
Well, cheers for the comment! I would have loved to have joined the military, but I cannot as I am not physically fit enough (having suffered from asthma since I was little).
I don’t think Iraq was a mistake. I think the mistake was made by the left and centre left in refusing (in Britain) to see that we are engaged in a war and consequently trying to fight a war (I’d count them both as the same war) on a shrinking peace time budget.
True we have had a shrinking defence budget over the years particularly in the 1990s when the government no longer had the Soviet Union to contest with. But as I understand the military budget has gone up considerably over the past few years to help the armed forces with their commitments. Whether its enough or if we can ever give enough I don’t know.
As for the war in Iraq I don’t see it as the same war. In Afghanistan we went in to fight Islamic Fundamentalists who were apart of 9/11. In Iraq old scores had to be settled against Saddam Hussain which wasn’t completed in 1991.
Well, speaking for the United Kingdom, the defence budget has about a 6% real fall between expenditure and funding, which would be higher if one takes into account the cancelled training exercises and the amalgamation of some of the infantry battalions.
We can give enough, it’s just that this current government won’t.
It is the same war. Saddam Hussein was hosting al-Qaeda related groups and funding Palestinian terrorism at the same time. If you don’t think that the Palestinian terrorist groups are in much the same camp as al-Qaeda and the Iranians (who’ve worked together regularly since the early ’90s), then you’re drawing false divisions.
“Saddam Hussein was hosting al-Qaeda related groups”
No. He. Wasn’t.
You wheezy gun-groupie badger’s biffer.
Ansar al Islam, arsehole. Don’t try American insults on me – they don’t work.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ansar_al_islam.htm
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9237/
http://www.meforum.org/article/579
This all depends on whether you think that the administration was lying. I don’t happen to think so, having seen evidence supporting most of their conclusions.
Mm..
Ohayou..
Nice to meet You..
I’m Indonesian People..
Douzo Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu..
I must be “Blue Four” and late to the game. I’ve had you on the radar since discovering you at Harry;s several months ago–don’t get by often enough. I’m a ret. PhD in Poli-Sci and an ex-USAF Vietnam era fighter pilot. (i.e., well into my geezerhood–Geezer Power!–edging toward ultimate fossilization, at which time I guess I’ll have to adopt the nom de plume of “The Fighting Fossil,”) with too much time on my hands and lots of “Demon Rum” laid in–a dangerous combination. I Enjoy your site. And, like you, I was a model builder in my youth!
Cool! What did you fly in Vietnam?