Just before I head off for the weekend to Donington Park for the MotoGP (updates across the event on the BatiFan Blog and at BatiFans.com) I just had to post this stunning hatchet job by Matthew Norman in The Independent.
Although the article doesn’t actually address the primary questions of the dishonesty of the mission in Afghanistan – and the basic principle that our troops should not be there and be in harm’s way in the first place – it *does* do a smashing job at ridiculing the utterly ridiculous George Foulkes. Not hard, I know – small children could probably do a decent job – but Matthew Norman’s rage at the (literally) Brown-nosing dreg is pure joy and pure class.
Read the article in full…
…Great in theory.
But just to prove how little we do seem to remember – or indeed learn, here’s a list of conflicts around the globe since Armistice Day, 1918.
▪ 1918 Finnish Civil War
▪ 1918 – 1922 Russian Civil War
▪ 1918 Polish-Czech war in Teschen Silesia
▪ 1918 Viena expedition
▪ 1918 – 1919 Poland and Lwow against Westukrainian Republic
▪ 1918 – 1919 Great Poland Uprising, Provinz Posen against Germany
▪ 1919 Third Anglo-Afghan War
▪ 1919 First Silesian Uprising
▪ 1919 Aunus expedition
▪ 1919 – 1921 Polish-Soviet war Poland and Ukrainian Peoples Republic against Soviets
▪ 1919 – 1921 Anglo-Irish War / Irish War of Independence
▪ 1919 – 1922 “Turkish War of Independence”
▪ 1920 – 1922 Second Greco-Turkish War
▪ 1920 Second Silesian Uprising Silesian Poles against Germany
▪ 1921 Third Silesian Uprising Silesian Poles against Germany
▪ 1922 – 1923 Irish Civil War
▪ 1932 – 1935 Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay
▪ 1934 – 1936 Northern Expedition by Kuomintang
▪ 1935 – 1936 Second Italo-Abyssinian War
▪ 1936 – 1939 Spanish Civil War
▪ 1937 – 1945 Second Sino-Japanese War
▪ 1939 – 1945 World War II
▪ 1939 – 1940 Winter War; Part of WW II, Finland against Soviet Union
▪ 1941 – 1944 Continuation War; Part of WW II, Finland against Soviet Union
▪ 1944 – 1945 Lapland War; Part of WW II, Finland against Germany
▪ 1941 – 1945 Pacific War; Part of WW II, Japan against Australia and the United States
▪ 1941 – 1942 Border war between Ecuador and Peru
▪ 1944 – 1949 Greek Civil War
▪ 1945 – 1949 Chinese Civil War
▪ 1946 – 1954 First Indochina War
▪ 1947 – 1949 First Kashmir War between India and Pakistan
▪ 1948 – 1949 First Arab-Israeli War
▪ 1947 – Kashmir conflict between India and Pakistan
▪ 1948 – Palestinian / Israeli conflict
▪ 1948 – 1960 Malayan Emergency
▪ 1950 – 1953 Korean War
▪ 1952 – 1960 Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya
▪ 1954 – 1962 Algerian War of Independence
▪ 1954 – 1964 Vietnamese Civil War
▪ 1955 – 1972 First Sudanese Civil War
▪ 1956 Suez Crisis (Second Arab-Israeli War)
▪ 1956 – 1959 Cuban Revolution
▪ 1960 – 1996 Guatemalan Civil War
▪ 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion (CIA-sponsored invasion attempt)
▪ 1961 – 1975 Angolan War of Independence
▪ 1962 – 1963 Sino-Indian War
▪ 1964 – 1973 Vietnam War
▪ 1964 – 1975 Mozambique’s War of Independence
▪ 1965 Second Kashmir War (Second Indo-Pakistani War)
▪ 1965 – 1996 Chad Civil War
▪ 1966 – 1988 Namibian War of Independence
▪ 1966 – Colombian Civil War
▪ 1967 Six-Day War (Third Arab-Israeli War)
▪ 1967 – 1970 Biafra War in Nigeria
▪ 1967 – 1975 Cambodian Civil War
▪ 1971 The Pakistani Civil War that becomes the Third Indo-Pakistani War
▪ 1973 Yom Kippur War (Fourth Arab-Israeli War)
▪ 1974 – 1991 Ethiopian Civil War
▪ 1975 – 1989 Angolan Civil War
▪ 1975 – 1991 Lebanese Civil War
▪ 1975 – 1998 War of Indepence in East Timor
▪ 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War
▪ 1979 – 1992 El Salvador Civil War
▪ 1977 – Somalian Civil War
▪ 1978 – Afghanistan Civil War
▪ 1978 – Communist coup of 1978
▪ 1978 – 1992 Civil war between Mujahideen and Democratic Republic of Afghanistan
▪ 1979 – 1989 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
▪ 1980 – 1988 Iran-Iraq War
▪ 1981 Border war between Ecuador and Peru
▪ 1982 Falklands War
▪ 1982 Lebanon War
▪ 1982 – 1984 Mozambique’s Ciwil War
▪ 1983 U.S.-sponsored invasion of Grenada
▪ 1983 – 2000 Civil War in Sri Lanka
▪ 1988 – 1994 Nagorno-Karabakh war between Armenia and Azerbaijan
▪ 1989 – 1990 United States invasion of Panama
▪ 1990 – 1991 Persian Gulf War
▪ 1990 – 1992 Rwanda Civil War
▪ 1991 – 2001 Yugoslav Wars
▪ 1991 Slovenian War
▪ 1991 – 1995 Croatian War
▪ 1992 – 1995 Bosnian War
▪ 1998 – 1999 Kosovo War
▪ 1991 – 1993 Georgian civil wars
▪ 1991 – 1992 South Ossetian war
▪ 1992 – 1994 Abkhazian War
▪ 1993 Georgian civil war, western Georgia
▪ 1991 – 1997 Sierra Leone Civil War
▪ 1993 – 1999 Burundi Civil War
▪ 1994 Yemen Civil War
▪ 1994 – 1996 First Chechen War
▪ 1995 Cenepa War between Peru and Ecuador
▪ 1996 – 1997 Liberian Civil War
▪ 1998 – 2000 Border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea
▪ 1999 Kargil Conflict
▪ 1999 – 2003 Second Liberian Civil War
▪ 1992 – 1993 Civil War between different tribal military forces
▪ 1994 – 2001 Civil War between Taliban movement and Northern alliance
▪ 1983 – Second Sudanese Civil War
▪ 1992 – Civil War in Algeria
▪ 1994 – Zapatista Revolution in Mexico
▪ 1995 – Second Ugandan Civil War
▪ 1996 – Civil War in Nepal
▪ 1999 – Second Chechen War
▪ 2001 Macedonian War
▪ 2001 – United States war in Afghanistan
▪ 2001 – Civil War in Côte d’Ivoire
▪ 2003 – Invasion of Iraq
▪ 2003 – Darfur conflict, Sudan
▪ 2004 – Haiti rebellion
▪ 2006 – Lebanon War
▪ 2008 – Second South Ossetia War
