By
Finian Cunningham
January 08, 2019 "Information
Clearing House"
-
Why is Britain spending billions of dollars on two new super
aircraft carriers? That’s the question the state-owned BBC asks. However, don’t
expect the British Bullsh**t Corporation to provide any insightful answers.
The two ships in question – now coming into service – are HMS
Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, lovingly named after the British
monarchy. The total cost for building these “leviathans” is around £6
billion ($8bn), according to the BBC. But when fully fitted out with new
warplanes, the cost will soar to multiples of that figure.
At a time when poverty is hitting record levels in Britain
and the country is facing an economic meltdown over its Brexit divorce
from the European Union, it is certainly pertinent to question the seemingly
twisted priorities of British state planners in putting these mega warships
into service.
You have to appreciate the scale of these vessels. HMS Queen
Elizabeth is 280 meters in length, longer that the iconic Houses of Parliament
building in London. It can host up to 60 aircraft on its deck.
The BBC calls the two new super carriers “gunboat diplomacy
on steroids”. They are bigger than any other previous British-made aircraft
carrier, all which have been decommissioned through old age.
The US navy currently has 10 such vessels. China, France and
Russia have one each. With two aircraft carriers, Britain is thus showing
“global ambitions”. But what are those ambitions?
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Significantly, both of these British warships are reportedly
designed to be compatible with US counterparts. Britain has ordered 48
American-made Lockheed Martin F-35B stealth fighter jets, specifically
for deployment on its new carriers. It is planning to buy a total of 138 F-35s
to complete the battle group.
Each F-35 warplane has a price tag of around $100 million. So,
for the total package of 138 planes for the two carriers, the final cost could
be near $18 billion. That’s on top of the $8bn building budget.
Again, this is a bewildering extravagance with British
taxpayers’ money at a time when the country is suffering from massive poverty
and its public health services – once the envy of the world – are in abject
deterioration.
The design of Britain’s new carriers – in particular the
compatibility with US navy and air force – is perhaps the key to what British
“global ambitions” are really about.
Britain is positioning itself as a hired gun for American
imperialism in the 21st century. Think about it. Why would Britain build these
giant warships to be of such service to US warplanes, instead
of British-European counterparts like the EuroTyphoon fighter?
The function of Britain as a military accomplice of the US is
nothing new of course. All during the Cold War decades, British forces were a
reliable partner in American overseas interventions. The henchman role played
by Britain was euphemistically called the “special relationship”.
After the Cold War, the “special relationship” continued
with Britain joining in American wars on Afghanistan and Iraq. The British not
only provided important firepower and boots on the ground to terrorize occupied
populations on behalf of the Americans, the accomplice role also provided an
important veneer of “multilateralism” and, therefore, legal cover for what was
otherwise blatant criminal aggression.
Looking ahead, Washington’s imperial planners are fixated
on the return of “great power rivalry”. China and Russia are explicitly fingered
as the targets. As American economic power diminishes, the role of its military
is assigned more purpose to offset this weakness with regard to exerting US
global power.
But American military power is also limited by historic
economic demise. With a national debt of $22 trillion – and counting – the
outlook for US militarism is one of inevitable constraints.
This is where Washington’s partner in militarism – Britain –
is finding a new assignment. Namely, to share the military burden of “securing”
the globe in the 21st century for Anglo-American capitalism.
Britain’s two new super carriers fit this arrangement.
Admittedly, construction of the vessels was initiated 10 years ago. But we are
talking about strategic planning here, and how American and British planners
anticipate trends of geopolitics.
What is of concern is how British political and military
leaders, as well as state propaganda outlets (like the BBC and think-tanks
like the Integrity Initiative), have been zealously ramping up Russophobia
in recent years.
The alleged poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in England
last year is a case in point. The British political and media establishment have
been banging war drums over that dubious incident with accusations that the
Russian government ordered “an assassination on the streets of Britain” – an
“act of war” no less, it is claimed.
Britain’s warmongering against Russia is also demonstrated
by its increased “interception” of Russian warplanes and warships
in international waters; its unprecedented deployment of troops to the Arctic
and Baltic (including Prince Harry!) – “to send a signal to Moscow”; and
recently the dispatch of a British warship to the Black Sea to support the
Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev which, British defense minister Gavin Williamson claims,
is “facing Russian aggression”.
British delusions of grandeur as a former imperial power are
pathetic. But these delusions are also dangerous when Britain is being given a
new role as America’s imperialist henchman for the 21st century. And in a bid
to try to prove its “worth”, Britain is becoming more belligerent
towards Russia.
Finian Cunningham
has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in
several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and
worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge,
England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician
and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major
news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.
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What About their Genealogies?
What's New
DNA Confirms Remains of Russian Royal Family
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People have always been fascinated by the bloodlines of royal families. Perhaps none is more fascinating than the House of Romanov that ruled Russia until Czar Nicholas II abdicated in 1917. The fate of Czar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their four daughters and their son the 13-year-old Crown Prince Alexei has always inspired tales of mystery and intrigue. DNA identification has now put to rest the final fate of the Russian royal family.
The First World War seriously weakened Russia as the combined might of the German and Austro-Hungarian armies overwhelmed Russian defenses. By the spring of 1917, Russia was on the verge of collapse. Rebellions broke out all over Russia as acute food shortages and extreme cold weather incited the population to riot. Czar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate in March 1917. The power vacuum was quickly filled by parties of all political stripes. The Bolshevik revolution resulted in Lenin and the Communists gaining power in October 1917. This eventually ended up sealing the Romanov’s fate.
Initially, Lenin planned a show trial for Nicholas II to blame the former Czar for all the ills that were affecting Russia. Lenin moved the Romanov family and their immediate servants in April 1918 to a country house in Yekaterinburg to keep them out of the hands of Imperial forces. Yekaterinburg was 900 miles east of Russia on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains in central Russia. However, as the country became mired in civil war, Lenin came to the conclusion the Romanov family was a potent symbol of the old regime and a potential rallying cry for his enemies. According to the diary of Leon Trotsky, Lenin himself personally ordered their execution. In July 1918, the Romanov family along with their immediate servants was executed by gun and bayonet in the basement of the house where they were held captive.
A second set of bone fragments was eventually found in the summer of 2007 not far from the location of the original bodies. These, however, were different from the bodies discovered in 1991. It was obvious that these bone fragments had been damaged by more than just time and natural decay. Forensic research subsequently confirmed the bone fragments had been subjected to both acid and fire. It appeared as though the executioners had attempted to fully destroy these bodies.
Advanced genomic analysis of the bone fragments was completed in February 2009. The work was conducted by the University of Massachusetts Medical School in cooperation with the Russian Academy of Science and the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The results of the advanced DNA analysis confirmed the bone fragments are the remains of the two missing children of Nicholas II: the 13-year-old Crown Prince Alexei and his older sister Anastasia.
After 90 years, the fate of the Russian royal family has finally been solved.
A portrait of the Russian Royal Family. Crown Prince Alexei and Princess Anastasia are the second and third on the right. The dates of birth of all the children are listed below the image. Source: US Library of Congress
Some Interesting Genealogy Facts about the Russian Royal Family• The title Czar (often written as Tsar) literally means Caesar.
• The House of Romanov ruled Russia from 1613 to 1917. The more accurate genealogical name for the dynasty is Holstein-Gottorp-Romanov.
• The Romanovs were originally one of two dozen Russian noble families before rising to become tsars. The family originated in Germany. All of the Romanov leaders took German consorts as their wife, including Czar Nicholas II, whose wife Alexandra was German. This cost Czar Nicholas II considerably during World War I when Russia was at war with Germany.
• Czar Nicholas II’s wife Alexandra (nee Fyodorovna) was a granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. She inherited the gene that causes hemophilia (common today in the English royal family and several other royal families around Europe), which she passed on to her son Crown Prince Alexei.
• Crown Prince Alexei as the Czar-designate (known as the Tsarevich) grew up as a fragile young boy because of his hemophilia condition. His mother Alexandra eventually gave up on doctors and turned to mystics and holy men to try to cure his condition. This is how the mystic Rasputin entered the lives of the Russian royal family. Rasputin was thought to have great influence over the affairs of Czar Nicholas II in the later days of his reign.
Reference: http://www.genealogyintime.com/NewsStories/2009/March/dna_confirms_remains_of_russian_royal_family.html
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