Why the British Empire declined and fell...

Here we go ... the article titled "Watch out Sarge! It's environmentally friendly" fire can be read here. I only include this link so that you can see I'm not making it up. The gist of it for those who can't be arsed is that BAE which is the UK's and one of the world's largest Killing Machine developers and manufactures is going eco-friendly (or will die trying). Pardon me while I die laughing

The company's initiative is being backed by the Ministry of Defence which itself wants "quieter warheads" to reduce noise polution and Grenades That Produce Less Smoke.

The article claims that experiments have been conducted to see if explosives can be turned into manure. Surely it would be cheaper to go into the manure making business more directly either by sitting at desks and producing shit or, um, going into the pig* farming business.

The promulgator-in-chief of all this crap (no pun intended) is a certain Dr Debbie Allen who is quoted in the article as saying that "it was important to consider the environmental product of all products".

I bet she enjoyed drafting that. But not as much as she enjoyed putting together the following: "Weapons are going to be used and when they are, we try to make tham as safe for the user as possible, to limit collateral damage and to impact as little as possible on the environment.

It seems that in BAE-World people (and their possessions) are in some way divorced from or otherwise entirely separate from The Environment.

Geez. All this green advocacy has got us to the point where the environment matters in its own right rather than because we humans, whether we like it or not, are part of an infinitely and intricately interlocked eco-system.

More progress.

In BAE-World we will have:

• bullets with lower lead content because "lead used in annunition can harm the environment and pose a risk to people"
• armoured vehicles with lower carbon emissions
• weaponry with fewer toxins (no more volatile organic compounds or other hazardous and often carcinogenic chemicals
• safer (yes, that's safer) artillery
• energy saving measures and recycling

In its entirety this is predicated on the assumption that we need such weaponry, when the reductio ad absurdum of the green argument is that we should all retrench to fisticuffs.

To the Brits who are frantically endeavouring to be all things to all people simultaneously I say: "make up your minds". If you wish to continue to be something like a significant military power, fine. I'm not a citizen/subject. It isn't any of my business.

But for fuck's sake and just this once do it properly. If you must design bullets, focus first on the primary object which is the termination of the target. If you must build bombs, make sure that the crap really is blown out of what ever they're dropped on. If you must rampage across what ever environment, make sure that your primary objective is achieved and concern yourself with the exhaust fumes only when material issues have been resolved.

Stop fannying around - that's how the empire was lost.