I see that the forthright Old Holborn is also persuaded of the virtues of the Swiss Method.
He says:
…I propose that we do what those smart Swiss people do. Tell everyone to fuck off and mind their own business. Give anyone with a record of paying tax a nice shiny gun to keep in the Everest Conservatory, next to the golf clubs and the shit wicker furniture, train them how to pop a cap in some mofo’s ass from 50 yards and declare ourselves neutral. But nuclear weapons type of neutral. Stonking great fuck off aircraft carrier, Polaris armed subs type of neutral.
With a few exceptions I would entirely agree (50 yards? Good heavens! What are you shooting, a Carlie G?).
We do not need force-projection hardware germane to our usual role as America’s unquestioning client, nor do we need to be kept in this demeaning and dangerous role by continuing to accept American-supplied nuclear weapons. We should, if we want these things, build them ourselves, and should concentrate the Navy on protecting our own food supplies at sea, not on protecting American profits in other peoples’ countries.
And despite Old Holborn’s either very well-researched or possibly very well Photoshopped illustration, I still don’t much care for the SA80, with or without SUSAT, and repeat my request to be issued with an SMLE No. 4 and .303 Ball MkVII, with which I will undertake to reinforce Old Holborn’s cogent and relevant arguments at at least 200 yards.
But despite these niggles I think he’s right. Armed neutrality, and refusing to join anything, is the only way forward.
