From: hallam@zeus02.desy.de (Phillip M. Hallam-Baker)
Subject: Re: BBN II -- Murk-o-Vision World Update (Mau Mau)
Reply-To: hallam@zeus02.desy.de
Organization: DESY ZEUS Central Data Acquisition
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 20:38:36 GMT

In article <92Jul21.103933edt.104@orasis.vis.toronto.edu>,
liuyh@vis.toronto.edu (Yuanhui Liu) writes:
|>In article <14gneeINNneq@agate.berkeley.edu>
|>tedrick@whistle.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick) writes:
|>>->The King, satisfied, goes back to listening to Zevon sing about
|>the
|>>->collapse of the British Empire at the hands of supposed savages...
|>>->"the Mau Mau came in '52 / the sun went down and we drew the drapes
|>/
|>>->in our old colonial home / we hid behind the Mau Mau gates" 
|>>
|>>Huh? Didn't the British Special Forces (SAS or whatever they're
|>called)
|>>kick the shit out of the Mau Mau? As I recall it was mainly some
|>damned 
|>>left-wing feminists and assorted communists, who rotted the British 
|>>Empire from within, that caused the remaining colonies to drop off 
|>>after WW2.
|>>
|>The British Empire was nothing but a hollow shell after WWI, although
|>the Brits think they still had an Empire.  After WWII, both Brits and
|>the French are finished as Empires.  The Brits knew it, but don't
|>want
|>to say it out loud.  left-wing feminists and assorted communists
|>are all that's left in the Empire since Rommel and the Japanese
|>killed most of the Imperialists. 

The English Civil service realised that the Empire was finished in the
30's. They tried to offload India but got stopped by Winnie & co.


|>>I think SAS also kicked the shit out of the guerrillas in Burma? 
|>>Too bad we didn't master British anti-guerrilla tactics before we
|>>got stuck in Vietnam.
|>>
|>Sure the British commandos can kill guerrillas, but how many commandos
|>are there?  If they don't let the colonies go how long do you think
|>places like India start to boil?  --boiling white colonists in hot oil?  

Well not too long before they became unecconomic to keep. Just think
what a drain India would be on the exchequer if we still had it. We
would have to be paying out money for roads and schools and hospitals,
as well as a major army to subdue the restless elements. Hell we would
probably have to repay all the money stolen under the Empire!


The US could never learn the British Guerilla tactics because they just
don't have the mindset. They prefer egotistical little one man Rambo
style warriors. They have an army built arround the latest techno
wizardry rather than the British system of bloody good Sargeants.
Ultimately the US lost Vietnam because they didn't know why they were
fighting, they didn't beleive in their aims or methods, they
underestimated their opponents and failed to understand the territory.
They got their asses kicked and a damn good thing to. Until they build a
second monument to the people they killed and appologise to the
Vietnamese people, the US will never regain its old position in the
world. Vietnam was the start of the collapse of the US empire, perhaps
they will be smart enough to realise this sooner than the British were.


Phill Hallam-Baker
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:10701 soc.culture.usa:6225