BRIMSTONE COWBOYS : HIGH TECH ASSASSINS by Donal Kennedy

In happier times,  flushed with victory in the Great War, British Government assassins, under cover of curfew, could slip out of Dublin Castle, enter a hotel within a hundred yards, surprise an unarmed civilian in his bed, murder him with a pistol shot, muffling its sound with a pillow and slip out again with very little effort and expense. In private houses too they could and did murder unarmed men, women, and children, just as conveniently. And Prime Minister Lloyd George would boast that his assassins were getting the right men.

Today expensive high-tech assassination sends much of the British media into paroxysms of delight. Human ingenuity, we are told, enables a high-flying aircraft to hit a “wanted” man on a bicycle with a five foot long missile, killing him with little chance of  ” collateral damage” and the bike might yet be salvaged. Up close and personal violence has been superseded by long-range and personal vendetta. Hurrah for progress in thisTHIRD CHRISTIAN MILLENNIUM!

I’m no Corbynite groupie, but I think it bizarre that Corbyn and his supporters are excoriated by the Great and the Good for opposing the renewal of the expensive Trident nuclear programme, and the continuation and extension of war in the Middle East to no good purpose.

The media, briefed by Her Majesty’s Government would have us  believe-

i),  that the SAS has snipers and sniper rifles that can kill a man at a great distances through thick brick and stone walls, with one aimed shot,

and

ii) that we should  all therefore sleep more easily in our  our beds.

I’m used to the Kriegfest of Poppycock and Tommyrot for weeks around Remembrance Sunday and on Queen Elizabeth’s Official Birthday, and whenever a Royal Personage breaks wind, but since the inauguration of the Centenary glorification of the First World War the nonsense never ceases.It won’t be over for another couple of Christmases, at least.

When veterans of the two World Wars,  those who remembered the Blitz, or  those who later did National Service, formed the bulk of the British population, Remembrance went with relief that such horrors were past for them. Today those who were spared the misery are expected to cheer the Brimstone Cowboys and their deeds of derring-do and to pray for the continuation of the same same old carry-on, but beyond Britain’s shores.