B
Back2Good
Guest
As I started this thread, let me put my well-worn thinking cap on and try to explain my "congratulations".
First and foremost, as is my wont, let's remember that Britain leaving the EU is a big deal for the EU...But not for Britain's security, or America's. Britain's ties with foreign security services (especially under the auspices of the "Special Arrangement" between Britain and America) won't be affected by the Brexit in the least bit - In the JSOC community we used to sneer when a "Deputy Liaison for Intelligence Sharing" from Brussels would show up at briefings, knowing the EU has countless "liaison" positions in intelligence, but the real work is done in London, Paris, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Washington, D.C.
Regardless of what the shouters on the television and radio say, from where I'm standing Brexit looks to improve Britain's security situation rather than degrade it.
Secondly, the choice Britons had boiled down to this: Fear or Freedom. You chose Freedom, decisively, as the the British people have always done. Fears of economic catastrophe? Fears of being isolated from the very nations you've liberated, more than once?
Look: Britain presides over the world's fifth-largest economy (edging out France for the spot last year), the fourth- or fifth-largest military, and -- it cannot be measured precisely but is nonetheless palpable -- a common law tradition that has underwritten democratic institutions, self-rule, and individual liberty. As far as I'm concerned, Brexit is a step towards global order being restored, and you should pride yourselves on having the stones to take that first step.
Yes, yes. There will be short-term turmoil. The pound is off and nearly everyone expects turbulence in the markets. Long-term, however, and it will not be that long in coming, Britain's assertion of its right to govern itself will redound to its own and the world's economic vitality.
I should add, under the rule of full disclosure, that I am of the old guard - I'm 61 years old, I'm American (Hell, I'm Texan!) and my viewpoints will no doubt clash (although let us hope not violently) with many of yours on occasion, but I'll leave you with this: There are students in the UK complaining about Brexit: "A really important decision was made for us by the older generation"..."Essentially people much, much older than us - And those people won't be around for the consequences are giving us a future we don't want."
Richard Fernandez responds pragmatically on Facebook:
Essentially people much older than you gave you what you now take for granted. They won World War 2, fueled the great boom, walked through the valley of the shadow of nuclear death — and had you.
You didn’t make the present, nor as you now complain, are you making the future. No children, no national defense, no love of God or country.
But that’s just it. You’ve brainwashed yourselves into thinking someone else: the old, the older, the government, the dead would always do things for you.
If you learn anything from Brexit, learn that nobody got anywhere expecting someone to do things for him.
Ouch. Hooah. Sua Sponte.
Respectfully,
- b2g
First and foremost, as is my wont, let's remember that Britain leaving the EU is a big deal for the EU...But not for Britain's security, or America's. Britain's ties with foreign security services (especially under the auspices of the "Special Arrangement" between Britain and America) won't be affected by the Brexit in the least bit - In the JSOC community we used to sneer when a "Deputy Liaison for Intelligence Sharing" from Brussels would show up at briefings, knowing the EU has countless "liaison" positions in intelligence, but the real work is done in London, Paris, Berlin, Jerusalem, and Washington, D.C.
Regardless of what the shouters on the television and radio say, from where I'm standing Brexit looks to improve Britain's security situation rather than degrade it.
Secondly, the choice Britons had boiled down to this: Fear or Freedom. You chose Freedom, decisively, as the the British people have always done. Fears of economic catastrophe? Fears of being isolated from the very nations you've liberated, more than once?
Look: Britain presides over the world's fifth-largest economy (edging out France for the spot last year), the fourth- or fifth-largest military, and -- it cannot be measured precisely but is nonetheless palpable -- a common law tradition that has underwritten democratic institutions, self-rule, and individual liberty. As far as I'm concerned, Brexit is a step towards global order being restored, and you should pride yourselves on having the stones to take that first step.
Yes, yes. There will be short-term turmoil. The pound is off and nearly everyone expects turbulence in the markets. Long-term, however, and it will not be that long in coming, Britain's assertion of its right to govern itself will redound to its own and the world's economic vitality.
I should add, under the rule of full disclosure, that I am of the old guard - I'm 61 years old, I'm American (Hell, I'm Texan!) and my viewpoints will no doubt clash (although let us hope not violently) with many of yours on occasion, but I'll leave you with this: There are students in the UK complaining about Brexit: "A really important decision was made for us by the older generation"..."Essentially people much, much older than us - And those people won't be around for the consequences are giving us a future we don't want."
Richard Fernandez responds pragmatically on Facebook:
Essentially people much older than you gave you what you now take for granted. They won World War 2, fueled the great boom, walked through the valley of the shadow of nuclear death — and had you.
You didn’t make the present, nor as you now complain, are you making the future. No children, no national defense, no love of God or country.
But that’s just it. You’ve brainwashed yourselves into thinking someone else: the old, the older, the government, the dead would always do things for you.
If you learn anything from Brexit, learn that nobody got anywhere expecting someone to do things for him.
Ouch. Hooah. Sua Sponte.
Respectfully,
- b2g
