A fighter jet isn't welcome, but a nuclear attack submarine is fine – go figure
It’s now become really obvious that both the government and the Opposition have confused ‘air base’ with ‘military base’, and that Joseph Muscat doesn’t even know what a military base is.
I don’t know how the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition reason things out, because to my mind there is absolutely no moral or strategic difference between having planes take off from Malta’s airport for military operations in Libya and having a nuclear attack submarine leave Malta’s harbour for the same purpose.
Miss Neutrality’s skirt is looking even more transparent. While the prime minister first talked of neutrality as the reason why he is not going to allow the military here except for ‘humanitarian purposes’ (and his foreign minister is doing so still), he later switched to explaining that our one airport can’t cope with both civilian and war traffic.
But Grand Harbour can.
The Times, today
The French submarine Améthyste, which is operating off Libya, was in Maltese territorial waters earlier this week to disembark and embark personnel. With a crew of 68 men, the nuclear attack submarine had taken part in Operation Allied Force, the 1999 campaign in ex-Yugoslavia.
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Profile of Moussa Koussa:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-12915987
I do not know whether you are aware of this. When you look up a blog-post in the archive, the date of each article is always wrong, e.g. 2013, 2031, 2100 etc. Perhaps you might wish to ask the webmaster to take care of this. Regards.
[Daphne – That’s not the year; it’s the time of posting: 2013 is 8.13pm]
I was at The Point this afternoon (big mistake, given the “Sunday” crowds and the noise, but that’s another story). What struck me most, however, was seeing Foreign Minister Tonio Borg going round the aisles at Debenhams.
Not quite the place, day or time for him to be seen shopping for clothes.
Oh but there is a difference – one is a fish and the other is a bird.
Not to split hairs or anything, but there really is a difference. The SNA Améthyste (unlike some US and British attack subs) does not carry any ground attack missiles (such as the Tomahawk). Just torpedoes and Exocet anti-ship missiles. So you could say that it cannot be used in an offensive role on Libyan soil.
But heck yeah, this war has shown that our government officials are patented ignoramuses in defence matters. I fully expect a shitstorm over the “nuclear” bit in the title. Back in the days when Alfie Fabri’s legendary “Buzz FM’ had to share 106.6 FM with live broadcasts from parliament, I used to hear a lot of the latter. I once caught part of an extremely long speech by Marie-Louise Coleiro (no Preca back then) on “vapuri bin-nukleari”, where she was unable to distinguish between nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered. I believe even the bronze Neptune in the courtyard wept that day.
Well? What did you expect? That lady can’t distinguish between a threat and a warning.
If the sub can offload special opps it definitely is offensive.
It is so obvious that the people who, supposedly, run this country, (including the Labour wannabe idiots) have no clue what’s really happening in the real world.
They remind me of hamsters on the treadmill – duh, if we run faster, things will stand still.
Harry, which Switzerland are you in? The real one or the one in the centre of the Mediterranean (make that the universe)?
In the real one, Philip! Everything is so sensible here. One more ski run down the mountain and then into the bar for an apero! Now that’s sensible.
Returning to the centre of the universe next week. Can’t wait, I need a laugh.
If you have a drink, make sure it’s neutral alcoholic. And be prudent. Choose life in the après-ski.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IjFjTciSzg
You only take heed when you need to. And you need to.
Come let me brief you…..
Baxxter, neutral alcohol is not my style. Stopped halfway down my last run, had three grappa and fell down the rest of the mountain.
You astonish me! How did you get that vid of me doing my professorial thing? Thought you would have one of Kevvy in the kitchen.
Look forward to your briefing, just keep yours on.
Alas, we’ll no longer hear Faithless’s unique sound. Like so many élite units before them, they’ve disbanded.
Me, I always keep mine on. My frag vest, that is.
You should visit Zermatt. That’s where all the Russian billionaires and supermodels hang out. At 200 Euro per fondue, it’s out of my league, but you could try your luck.
Oh come on Daphne, now that they are finally accepting to help in more than just a ‘humanitarian’ way, you’re grumbling?
At least it might dispel some of the bad press we’ve been getting anyway.
It’s true that the airport is not suited for military action, but the Grand Harbour is not called ‘grand’ for nothing…
To say that our foreign policy is in one whole mess is an understatement. We should change the name of Tonio’s ministry from MFA to ‘Dodgers Extraordinaire’. They have been going round in circles for so many weeks now that even they don’t even know where they started off from.
I had a bad start to the day when I read what Tonio Borg said about Muslim extremist parties. The guy has completely lost the plot and it’s such a pity that the PM seems to have reverted to being the PM again without having a good handle on our foreign policy as he did a week after this whole Libya mess started.
Allow me to remind readers here that the first aircraft (Austrian) that landed in Malta for a humanitarian mission was almost impounded by Tonio Borg’s ministry and firmly told that ‘we have nothing to do with what is happening in Libya, so you either go back where you came from or you will not be allowed to leave’.
Only when the PM got involved did he turn this episode into now a world-known huge humanitarian effort by Malta. Now that Tonio is being left on his own again, one can only expect more of the mess and dodging exercise.
It’s such a pity that a political party that has turned out so many great politicians with incalculable foresight has also turned such a lame dodger.
In one of my earlier comments I had written about the fact that military leaders will forever remember Malta’s position during the Libyan crisis. These are the same leaders we will have to beg when it comes to helping us out on anything – from illegal immigration to an earthquake, and believe me, these people will not forget in a hurry.
Then, typical Maltese, we will all grumble and say the whole world is against us. Very much like we are now ourselves not wanting to be part of the world.