8 days of undulterated bliss in the United Arab Emirates

[Ash]

Getting involved in a war without being prepared to do what's necessary to win it was the real madness. As Jacky Fisher, former Admiral of the Fleet put it: 'The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.'

This is a lesson the Americans seem oddly unwilling to learn.

I'm not so sure they actually want to win any of their current wars, in any meaningful way, as much as to create further chaos. For example, by smashing up Libya they've created more terrorism around Africa which is used as a reason for more interventions and ever higher military budgets (the latest increase in the annual military budget is higher than the total military budget in Russia) and more money for the arms manufacturers who sponsor the careers of the politicians who call in the wars. Trebles all round!

It is possible that the Afghanistan conflict is being kept going because apart from the alleged value of the poppy harvest to the covert budgets of a certain three-initial-acronym agency, the perpetual chaos hampers China's ability to achieve its new Silk Road trading aims.

And so on.