So, here I sit listening to music from the Queen's Royal Golden Jubilee pondering a news clipping I read on Yahoo. The Royal Navy is essentially being slashed in half. I read an admiral's statement that the Dutch now have a larger navy than the British.

As a historian/antiquarian I find this to be rather sad. The Royal Navy was, for better and for worse, the single most influential institution the world has ever seen. Everything that the west enjoys about its life (and some things it hates) is directly attributable to the Royal Navy. What no power could do to the impenetrable oaken ramparts, which gave way to ships of iron with hearts of oak, a sniveling accountant did with the stroke of a pen.

Of course, one may ask why I, as an American, give a rat's rear-end about British policy.... good question. Complex answer. Won't go into it here, needless to say I have British flags hanging in my house. But I think that it is a sad day when one of the bulwarks of western democracy is dismantled on the hopes of creating a brave new world. I'm all for peaceful coexistance, but not at the expense of losing one's identity. As is readily apparent throughout the world, Americans HAVE no identity apart from the pave-the-world-super-sized-fast-food myopia that everyone knows and loves. I take great pride in being a first generation American. I get my identity, as do many in my family, from our British heritage. It rather blows that one more part of our identity just went from "living" legend to dead myth. I know I always got a chill up my spine when I saw the Union Jack flying from the masthead of a Royal Navy frigate when they'd pop in from time to time in Newport or even on the Great Lakes on one of their little friendship tours.

A homogenized world society is a bad thing. One world order is a bad thing. It brings us all down to the lowest common denominator. There is a reason why some societies are better, more advanced, and philosophically enlightened than others. We should not handicap ourselves to "level the playing field." The dismantling of the Royal Navy is one more step down the road to western annihilation. We cannot make reparations now for attrocities that the west committed on ignorant savages a hundred years ago. It seems that that is what the west in general are attempting to do. We are reversing the natural course of Social Darwinism and it will rip our heads off in the end.


Flame on.

Whilst I'm as nostalgic as the next good British man, (or in this case gender confused colonial) I think it's important to see the role we British are starting to play in the world.

Whilst Mr. Bush is sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq, where we are in Basra, we are looking at pulling out, the situation being stable.

Now I'm not knocking US army here, so no flames please, allow me to illustrate further.

We as the British have learned, possibly - probably in fact, from Empire days how to deal with a multicultural world. That is now our job as part of the West. We can relate to people much better than other nations and so we seem to do better in the task of engaging with local populations and finding common ground. If there is to be a world peace, then it can only be through such social and above all, cultural interaction and understanding.

As a prime example, I saw something on TV, an event in Afghanistan. A small thing, but huge in it's implications.

A British patrol is out in moderately dangerous territory doing it's thing and a typical pickup truck (one of them indestructible Toyota's[1] probably) with the machine gun mounted on and it's full of arabs. Do our valiant boys shoot first? Oh no... they realise the culture of the place. All the blokes have guns, it's cultural. It turns out to be a delegation of the local elders wanting to have a bit of a moan.

The Patrol does something which connects Britain to vast chunks of the world in a way other Western countries can and will never be able to do. They put the kettle on and made a cup of tea. Silly isn't it. Tea. They all drink tea out there, you know. Sit down with the locals, have a cuppa, hear them out. The locals have their moan, maybe there's nothing can be done, but they have at least been engaged with and on a level which is culturally compatible with all sides.

The Royal Navy, for all it's glory was about war. To defend the realm, or take a fight to our enemies.

I want to believe that the British armed forces are now about making a peace. Perhaps the greatest legacy the Royal Navy can give is to make itself unecessary.

[1] Check these vids for details

[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRZzkrLSXj0]Part1[/url]
[url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0Fzrsf4G2I]Part2[/url]

That is very true I suppose, about the main goal of a military being to make peace. But it is the peace that can only be purchased on the other end of a battlefield. I also agree that the greatest legacy that the Royal Navy could is to make itself unnecessary. However, I think that is an idealistic approach and it will never be unnecessary. Call it right wing paranoia, which in all honesty it may very well be, but it seems to me that the dismantling of the navy at this time and place in history is not a step towards true world peace (albeit that is what the thought doubtlessly is) but a step towards greater destabilization.

You are also right about the British approach to the Arabic question being better. I cant' remember the actual name of the policy but it was something like "Operation Softly softly" or words to that effect. Patrols were ordered to go out wearing berets and soft hats as opposed to helmets, and (if I recall correctly) rifles were to be slung as opposed to carried. IT was my understanding that the local Iraqi population reacted better to that than the fear inspiring patrols stance of the US. Big men wearing bulky body armor, kraut looking helmets, sunglasses, weilding large machine guns would be frightening and probably controversy inspiring.

I don't know what the correct answer is. Can't pull out cuz that'd leave a vaccuum. Shouldn't commit more unless the policy changes because the present policy is useless.

I suppose, in the end, it would be a great legacy were the Royal Navy only to exist only in maritime art and romantic paintings, but I fear that the loss of a means of projecting power just weakened us. Alas, we will agree to disagree on that point. I fear that this one world order that SEEMS to be brewing will try to blend everyone together. I like diversity. I like separate cultures. I like separate heritages. If the new world order will be about tolerance and respect then I guess I am all for it. I am afraid that is not what will happen.

Oh, i forgot.... i liked it when the dog said "bugger."

[quote:e9c4ee7266="Eveshka"]I like separate cultures. I like separate heritages. If the new world order will be about tolerance and respect then I guess I am all for it. I am afraid that is not what will happen.[/quote:e9c4ee7266]

I like separate cultures too. Actually, no. I like varied cultures. Separate is a word which smacks too much of, well, separation. What we want to achieve is a world where everyone can retain their cultures, whilst respecting one another at the same time. You may be right, it may be an impossible dream.

[quote:e9c4ee7266]Oh, i forgot.... i liked it when the dog said "bugger."[/quote:e9c4ee7266]

Heh... who wouldn't?