HMS Invincible
HMS Bulwark
Posted on 07/15/2006 12:02:18 PM PDT by weegie
Defence Secretary Des Browne has given orders for HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwark to "make ready" for operations off Lebanon. The pair will depart as soon as necessary, possibly within 24 hours.
No order for evacuating UK citizens has yet been given, but ministers and defence staff are considering a plan to evacuate those trapped in Lebanon.
It comes as Israel has stepped up its strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah militants seized two Israeli soldiers.
HMS Illustrious is currently in Gibraltar and HMS Bullwark is close to Spain.
The decision whether to proceed with an evacuation plan has not yet been taken and no orders have been given.
The Foreign Office has urged British citizens to keep a low profile and warned against travelling there.
Meetings on the evacuation plan are taking place at the Ministry of Defence.
An MoD spokeswoman said the two ships had been given "no specific tasking", but added: "As you would expect we are monitoring the situation closely and are engaging in prudent contingency planning."
"As part of this HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwark will shortly head towards the region," she said.
Evacuation I would assume
When all the rescue efforts are underway, it will be quite an armada. At some point Israel will have to set up a safe corrider in/around Beirut, however.
The really scary thing is that the Islamofascist subhumans will probably start taking as many foreigners hostage as they can. If I were in that God forsaken city, I'd get to the the U.S. or British embassy as fast as I could. It looks like the only way to save the foreign citizens will be for Israel and/or the Western powers to send in troops to secure the city and prevent massive hostage taking.
The City Centre and the Christian quarter will be very safe for Westerners - They dont like Muzzies either
HMS Bulwark is similar in size to the Royal Navy's current aircraft carriers, and has a ship's company of 380, a quarter of whom comprise 4 Assault Squadron Royal Marines. The ship can also carry up to 700 troops and her flight deck can accommodate one Chinook or three Merlin helicopters. A large floodable dock holds four large landing craft - with another four carried on davits on the ship's side.
Oboy, some Brits will get to ride in a Navy ship. There is little that can top that.
Navy Ships are cool.
Not only that, but good for dinner conversation for years to come.
Then the Westerners better hie themselves to those places NOW.
Thats true
But coastal radars have now been destroyed
One can only hope. They may not turn them on until a target gets into range.
Don't you wonder what is wrong with the people who decided to go to Lebanon for vacation after that first soldier was kidnapped? There was a woman on the phone to CNN this morning who was in Beirut sounding scared. She said there were lots of Americans in beach Condos who are on vacation. I would just hate for an American serviceman to get killed rescuing people who didn't have enough sense to leave. That first soldier was kidnapped weeks ago.
I wouldn't judge them too harshly. This kind of thing has been going on for a long time now and it would have been unreasonable to expect that this time would be a big one.
Brit ships have such cool names.
Some people appear to have the "it won't happen to me" attitude.
"The really scary thing is that the Islamofascist subhumans will probably start taking as many foreigners hostage as they can. If I were in that God forsaken city, I'd get to the the U.S. or British embassy as fast as I could. "
The amazing thing about Beirut over the past three or four years is that it is NOTHING like you would imagine. I am guessing most folk have a mental picture of a dust infested, war scared, shanty town full of people with rags on the heads in white night gowns with AK47s, who shout Allah Akbar every five minutes before burning a UK or US flag. There are many places in the mideast where that description wouldn't be far off the mark - but Beirut in recent years certainly wasn't one of them. It has been a stable, increasingly modern, city. You could walk around and feel at eaze in the same way you can in Cairo or Amman (and if people don't believe me - trust me - I feel just as uneasy in certain parts of Washington DC as I do in maintown Beirut - like travelling anywhere you just use common sense). I was even thinking of taking the wife there for a break. Our subsidiary there does good business and employs a decent set of guys. Things breifly started to look, almost, normal. Of course, the assasination of Hariri a year or so back started to suggest the Syrian interference wasn't gone after all, and that at least some of the progress was illusionary. That and the complete failure of the government to deal with Hizbollah in the south.
The risk in the Israeli strategy though is that they now drive those who had given up Israel bashing to make a proper go of the country by setting up businesses and doing a normal days work, back into the arms of the lunatics out of fear for their lives. Let's hope this is a short sharp surgical series of strikes to take out some real bad guys, and help refocus the goverments minds on the Hizbollah in the south problem rather than a repeat of the 1981 deabacle.
Don't get me wrong, or think I am a fundamentalist sympathiser - I have a wee bit of a problem with Hizbollah: Back in '92 I was living & working in Kiryat Shmona (Northern Israel) and one of their Katyusha rockets landed too close for comfort. In the words of Winston Churchill, 'there is nothing so exhilarating as to be shot at by someone without them having success'. But needless to say, I have had a bit of a hump with Hizbollah ever since.
The problem in Lebanon isn't the Lebanese (40% christian by the way), just as the problem in Iraq isn't Iraqi's. The problem is the Jihadi's who mix among them with support from Iran and Syria.
Sorting out Iran and Syria would sort out both Lebanon and Iraq by proxy. I worry we've picked the right war but the wrong battlegrounds.
Anyway, like you say, if I was there at the moment, I'd be stuck like glue to my hotel. A test for the Lebanese government now will be if it has the authority over and support of its forces to properly guard these international hotels from any opportunistic internal elements. If it hasn't then this escapade may backfire badly.
That would be a big mistake on the part of Hezbollah and their Iranian/Syrian puppet masters.
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