Robbo,

Vietnam is the complete opposite of a no mucking about conflict with safe zones and no go zones for Nigel (as one of my first Company Commanders, a vietnam vet, used to call them). Vietnam is a great example of how not to fight a war or what happens when political objectives over ride military objectives.

Here is a paper from GWPF outlining the dire state of the UK Nuclear industry.

https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2023/11/Porter-Nuclear-Prospects.pdf

Mailman,
My understanding of Malaya is that there was quite a lot of subtlety in the campaign. In particular: having agents winning acceptance amongst the natives which effectively extended the communications and surveillance network. This helped a lot in detecting new communist incursions into the territory.

If you want a pattern for the "no mucking around" war, that'd be Vietnam (carpet bombing, napalm, get the reds, never mind the villagers). It's generally considered a loss by the Americans. The Viet Cong worked more along the lines of the Malaya strategy above.

FWIW, I've been told that the American command in Vietnam *wanted* to apply a Malaya-style strategy. The problem was that the next tier down went ahead and fired their howitzers anyway (figuratively, often literally too).

But as I have said, I don't think Malaya (or Sri Lanka or Vietnam) applies in Gaza: N = 1. Fortunately the Israelis aren't looking to either of us for strategic advice.

tomo,
Their metaphor of the three-legged stool with two legs missing misses the mark. Wind and EVs are coming up short for sure, but the solar leg isn't much chop either. Any chance for solar absolutely requires storage of some sort for overnight. The stool has no legs at all. I don't think there's a seat either.

Enjoyed skimming through a couple of videos where some car boffins took a trip from John O'Groats to Land's End, one in a modest BMW Diesel, the other in a Porsche Taycan EV. The original videos were rather long. Another car boffin has put together a 12 minute summary.

It's funny to think that a year or so ago you had to queue up on a waiting list just to buy an EV. Driving them any distance involves more queueing. Will the unfortunate buyers now have to join another queue to get rid of them?

Robbo,

Malaya and Sri Lanka worked because they didnt f88k about and just got on with the dirty business of killing the bad guy.

I mean what we are doing now is more of the same and expecting a different outcome (kinda reminds one of never ending lockdowns eh). Yeah lets not kill all the bad guys because this time they will totally respect the sanctity of life and the rules of warfare.

Mailman,
My mantra: N = 1. History does have lessons for today, but it also has a lot of stuff that would no longer work. The Israelis face this conflict in the Internet age and that is an asymmetrical problem for them: it tends to weaken *its* alliances, but to strengthen its enemy's.

Ross Lea,
Glad you enjoyed the Cater interview.

On nuclear, one thought that occurred to me while he talked about burying huge wind turbine blades: how would this compare with the amount of nuclear waste from generating that turbine's lifetime's-worth of electricity?

A quick Google and the third answer here says that, with current technology, waste amounts to about an olympic pool's worth for each GW of capacity *after 60 years of generation*. So just one of those wind turbines would more than fill an Olympic pool, wouldn't generate anything like 1 GW, and might last 15 years, not 60. Oh, and of course it wouldn't provide rated output 24x7 either. On the plus side, the waste wouldn't be significantly radioactive.

As for fusion, if it really is only 20 years away (this time) I'll be pretty close to my use-by date when it arrives.

Another thing that drifted into mind while listening was that the Net Zero madness might be modern politicians thinking they're being visionary, like JFK (we choose to go to the moon). Hasn't occurred to them that they are setting an impossible target (we choose to go to Never-Never Land); JFK wouldn't be so warmly remembered if he'd said such a thing.

Something mentioned in that interview was particularly tasty. I hadn't heard a peep about it in the media here, but it looks like Cater wasn't making it up. Jacinta Price suggested we should also have "an Asian voice to Parliament":

“Labor Senate leader Penny Wong lectures us on the floor of the Senate about what us Aboriginal folk really need.

“I put it to Wong that perhaps we need to co-design an Asian Voice to parliament so that policy that affects Asian Australians can be their responsibility.

“And that any time I need expert advice on how to better improve Wong’s life – I can just consult with the Asian Voice.”

Robert Swan

Thanks for the link to the Nick Carter interview; refreshing to hear sensible views for a change. It is interesting that when the view of the "liberal elete" is put to the people it exposes just how out of touch they are. (e.g. Brexit and the Voice etc). I agree small scale nuclear is the way forward until nuclear fussion comes on line (I am sure we will get some form of nuclear fussion eventually but not in my lifetime),

Robbo,

Prosecution through until conclusion HAS worked in the past. Malaya and Sri Lanka comes to mind.

Mailman,
Not sure Republican (generic) or Democrat would have mattered all *that* much to Hamas, though I doubt they'd have chanced it with Trump in the hot seat. What I think they're doing is modernising the Vietnam "television war", only now they don't need to convince big media (a Cronkite) to tell the story they want told. The echo chambers of social media can do a fine job of eating away support in the West. I believe Gaza is a pawn; the prize is Israel itself. Make it an unsupported pariah and its downfall becomes less of a dream.

A hazard of prosecuting it through until its conclusion is that the game doesn't end with that conclusion. Pretty sure Israel is aware of this.

tomo,
I quite liked Boris when he was editing the Spectator. Even in politics, I think his "reflexes" were right, but he was a total shambles when it came to thinking things through, strategies, etc. I had similar disappointment with Julia Gillard. She had been very good and down to earth when she was in opposition, but lost her common sense when in government, especially when she got the top job.

Won't miss either of them, but they were salutary lessons in the Peter Principle. I still look back on them more warmly than on Rudd or Turnbull who were abject examples of the Dilbert Principle.

That Peugeot 308 behaviour is outrageous: Ah, you've reached 120k, time to enable the too-expensive-to-repair fault. Like with Boeing, wise engineering gets overridden by MBAs focussed on short term profit.

Latest Brendan O'Neill with Nick Cater (British expat reporter in Aus) primarily on the referendum, but also covering renewable energy and other climate nonsense. Decent listening.