Mark Nicol retweeted
It's funny seeing all the mainstream outlets reporting on the evacuation from RAF Mildenhall this morning, most of them from behind paywalls...
As always, shout-out to my team @MATA_osint & our various contacts for their efforts last night monitoring the movements!
As always, shout-out to my team @MATA_osint & our various contacts for their efforts last night monitoring the movements!
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In light of the security threats at Mildenhall, worth remembering the arrest of a Hamas suspect in London last year at the request of Germany. Hamas activity not restricted to ME @Mr_Andrew_Fox share.google/FqM2vXRdCUd0rj…
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Very true and very concerning. Stifles creativity and initiative. Too centralist. Policies dictated by beancounters.
The essence of this is broadly correct: there has been creeping managerialism across the senior military; spreadsheet-handling gets you promoted, weapons-handling leads to enquiries; smiling along and being right in the moment rather than on the fundamentals is the necessary, performative vice.
But it would be wrong to kneejerk to a reversion to pre-Levene, as that MOD was flawed too - compared to, say, the Admiralty of the 1900s, where political, financial and operational realities were squared away with a cold-eye on the genuine strategic requirements of the nation-state.
We need the MOD today to resemble the Admiralty then, and that requires that cold-eyed realism to sit above the forces of all five domains and direct them in an integrated, and so coherent way. Otherwise we will continue horse-trading each service’s pipe-dreams inefficiently.
The current problem is that the MOD leadership was allowed to reform itself during @JohnHealey_MP Defence Reform programme. The essential and vital changes, predictably, happened in name only, and the old structures and incentives with their associated clerisy attached still rule.
It is a well-worn story: incoming administration has good intentions that get derailed by vested interests. Indeed, in many ways it has been a two-year long episode of Yes Minister.
@StevenScrase
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RT @williams_rje: Those that read this or listen to the podcast by @samkileynews might like to reflect on the asymmetry between the deliber…
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Blades makes for uncomfortable reading considering the subject matter. Its content must be understood by those standing in judgement over SAS soldiers. The incidents represent a failure by the state to support counterterrorist operations against a ruthless enemy. #specialairservice #specialforces
Why did Mark Nicol write Blades and reveal previously untold SAS operations in Afghanistan?
🎧 Listen to the full episode of The Unconventional Soldier Podcast to find out: open.spotify.com/episode/3sVTz0…
📖 Want to know the full story? Order your copy of Blades here: amazon.co.uk/Blades-Untold-…
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Mark Nicol retweeted
Latest pod out now with @MarkNicolDM author of "Blades". When the rules of engagement make a soldier’s job impossible, who should be held accountable for what happens next?
On all major platforms. Link to listen 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/3sVTz0…
On all major platforms. Link to listen 👇
open.spotify.com/episode/3sVTz0…
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Thank you Colin @TheUCS473 for this opportunity to push back against the SAS ‘rogue unit’ narrative. Blades is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the most controversial series of incidents in modern British military history. Don’t scapegoat the soldiers for Whitehall is eager for everyone to overlook. @BitebackPub @PFDAgents @DailyMail
Tomorrow's pod is with @MarkNicolDM. We discuss his book Blades about SAS ops in Afghanistan. He argues that to understand what happened means examining the realities on the ground: defeating Taliban bomb-making networks, restrictive ROE & decisions made far from theatre.
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BREAKING: Nigel Farage has scolded his friend Donald Trump for ‘failing to keep promises’ in his first remarks since the US midterm elections.
The Reform UK Leader also condemned the US’s eight-month conflict with Iran as a ‘mistake’ which cost the President’s party at the polls.
Asked this afternoon what was the lesson for President Trump following the seismic defeat of the Republican party, Mr Farage said: ‘Yes, keep your promises.
‘Trump was very good in his first term and second term at keeping his promises. But he broke a promise, and that was no more foreign wars.
‘We are eight months in and the result is a rise in gas and diesel prices. More than anything else that it was did them in.
‘The key is keeping your promises and, of course, the cost of living is key.’
In a remarkable turnaround in US politics and after a decade of dominance for President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, his party lost control of both houses of Congress.
The staggering defeat to the Democratic party was widely interpreted as a vote against the eight-month conflict with Iran which President Trump and his cohort boasted they could win in days.
Farage has previously criticised the notion of the UK involving itself in the conflict, on the grounds this country’s armed forces are over-stretched already, but he has not previously questioned President Trump’s judgement on this major policy area.
But at the Reform UK in central London today he said: ‘Absolutely it [the war] was a mistake. To try to have tactical strikes to try to, maybe not halt, but at least to slow the nuclear weapons programme, I totally agree with that.
‘But would I have said to them ‘Yeah, come on, let’s go to war for the next eight months or three years?’ No.
‘That is so bizarre. Trump always said ‘I was against Libya, I was against Iraq’.
‘It was extraordinary that the man who came from nowhere to twice become the American President and one of the biggest reasons he got there was ‘no more foreign wars’, so there you are.’
Mr Farage was speaking at a press conference heralding the appointment of former RAF wing commander Angus MacIntyre as the party’s defence spokesman.
Mr MacIntyre, who resigned from the armed forces after 40 years to take up the post, insisted the UK should do more support Ukraine in its four-year conflict with Russia.
However, his remarks prompted Farage to repeat his controversial explanation of the causes behind Russia’s invasion – a view that has previously led to claims he was appeasing Vladimir Putin’s actions.
Farage referenced the opinion of the late US foreign policy advisor Henry Kissinger regarding how NATO should respond to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall many eastern European countries, that were previously part of the Warsaw Pact, were granted entry to NATO.
Farage said: ‘Kissinger felt very strongly that when the [Berlin] wall came down we should not expand aggressively to the east.
‘Kissinger believed it was that, in many ways, that made Putin act aggressively against us.’
The Reform UK Leader also condemned the US’s eight-month conflict with Iran as a ‘mistake’ which cost the President’s party at the polls.
Asked this afternoon what was the lesson for President Trump following the seismic defeat of the Republican party, Mr Farage said: ‘Yes, keep your promises.
‘Trump was very good in his first term and second term at keeping his promises. But he broke a promise, and that was no more foreign wars.
‘We are eight months in and the result is a rise in gas and diesel prices. More than anything else that it was did them in.
‘The key is keeping your promises and, of course, the cost of living is key.’
In a remarkable turnaround in US politics and after a decade of dominance for President Trump’s ‘Make America Great Again’ movement, his party lost control of both houses of Congress.
The staggering defeat to the Democratic party was widely interpreted as a vote against the eight-month conflict with Iran which President Trump and his cohort boasted they could win in days.
Farage has previously criticised the notion of the UK involving itself in the conflict, on the grounds this country’s armed forces are over-stretched already, but he has not previously questioned President Trump’s judgement on this major policy area.
But at the Reform UK in central London today he said: ‘Absolutely it [the war] was a mistake. To try to have tactical strikes to try to, maybe not halt, but at least to slow the nuclear weapons programme, I totally agree with that.
‘But would I have said to them ‘Yeah, come on, let’s go to war for the next eight months or three years?’ No.
‘That is so bizarre. Trump always said ‘I was against Libya, I was against Iraq’.
‘It was extraordinary that the man who came from nowhere to twice become the American President and one of the biggest reasons he got there was ‘no more foreign wars’, so there you are.’
Mr Farage was speaking at a press conference heralding the appointment of former RAF wing commander Angus MacIntyre as the party’s defence spokesman.
Mr MacIntyre, who resigned from the armed forces after 40 years to take up the post, insisted the UK should do more support Ukraine in its four-year conflict with Russia.
However, his remarks prompted Farage to repeat his controversial explanation of the causes behind Russia’s invasion – a view that has previously led to claims he was appeasing Vladimir Putin’s actions.
Farage referenced the opinion of the late US foreign policy advisor Henry Kissinger regarding how NATO should respond to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Following the fall of the Berlin Wall many eastern European countries, that were previously part of the Warsaw Pact, were granted entry to NATO.
Farage said: ‘Kissinger felt very strongly that when the [Berlin] wall came down we should not expand aggressively to the east.
‘Kissinger believed it was that, in many ways, that made Putin act aggressively against us.’
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Mark Nicol retweeted
As I wrote in @thesun this morning — “the greatest unforced error in modern political history”:
“Black, White, North or South. Muslim, Christian, working class or middle earning - every single person I met, Republican or Democrat, warned the war was shaping their vote.
There is as blown it for the President: Iran and the knock-on effect on American voters’ pockets.
He was reelected on a pledge of no new wars and getting prices down.
“Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again,” he said on the 2024 stump.
In office he started a new war and saw costs at the pump rocket.
As I have been reporting over the last few weeks, it has blown away wins on immigration and law and order.
Strip aside what you think about the rights and wrongs of taking on the Mad Mullahs and stopping them getting the bomb.
From a purely political point of view Trump’s decision to go to war in the Middle East was one of the greatest unforced errors in modern political history.”
“Black, White, North or South. Muslim, Christian, working class or middle earning - every single person I met, Republican or Democrat, warned the war was shaping their vote.
There is as blown it for the President: Iran and the knock-on effect on American voters’ pockets.
He was reelected on a pledge of no new wars and getting prices down.
“Starting the day I take the oath of office, I will rapidly drive prices down and we will make America affordable again,” he said on the 2024 stump.
In office he started a new war and saw costs at the pump rocket.
As I have been reporting over the last few weeks, it has blown away wins on immigration and law and order.
Strip aside what you think about the rights and wrongs of taking on the Mad Mullahs and stopping them getting the bomb.
From a purely political point of view Trump’s decision to go to war in the Middle East was one of the greatest unforced errors in modern political history.”
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Hear hear
Great to hear @_Chris_Coghlan standing up for the SAS and UKSF in the House of Parliament. Not just as an MP, but as a reserve soldier. This constant lawfare is eroding the morale of the Special Forces and the greater @BritishArmy What do you think?
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How depressingly predictable.. telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…
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Mark Nicol retweeted
As expected, the @UKLabour Government is relying on creative accounting, ‘clever’ spin and ‘jam tomorrow’ to sell its so-called Defence Investment Plan (a tiny, and reduced sub-set of the budget) to a mainly disinterested, welfare-dependent, debt-loaded, post-industrial country.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Paraphrasing @wesstreeting: “Those charged with the defence of the UK (regardless of threats faced) will have to live within their (treasury set) means…it’s the best we can do, and it’s all that the focus-groups want us to do…”
It’s the “see no evil” approach to defence planning
This should not come as a surprise to anyone.
Paraphrasing @wesstreeting: “Those charged with the defence of the UK (regardless of threats faced) will have to live within their (treasury set) means…it’s the best we can do, and it’s all that the focus-groups want us to do…”
It’s the “see no evil” approach to defence planning
John Healey will cut £2bn from the defence budget despite boasting about filling a funding black hole.
Read more from our defence editors 👇
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/…
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Mark Nicol retweeted
Why did the Taliban fear the SAS? Author @MarkNicolDM reveals the intense reality of British special forces in Afghanistan, the Devils nickname, and the true rules of engagement.
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Not enough
What responsibility does the British state bear for the consequences of decisions made in its name, and how long does that responsibility endure?
justiceforveterans.uk/p/who-holds-th…
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Mark Nicol retweeted
Good to be there Mark, thank you for the invite. Powerful messages from you and Richard Williams. Blades is a hugely important book - one that should be read widely, now and in the future.
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Myself and @williams_rje discussing how the onslaught of lawfare threatens operational effectiveness at the launch of Blades - the Untold Story of the SAS in Afghanistan out now - Amazon link in bio. @robfox45 @jeromestarkey and @Charlie533080 and @CharlotteCGill among those in HQ Fusiliers at @TowerOfLondon
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