Ah, The Good Ol’ Coup d’état
Did you know tomorrow is the International Day of Peace? Did you know that today Thailand is in a coup d’état? Does anyone see a slight contradiction here? Did anyone also watch Spooks at the weekend? Can we see a theme here? Has anyone spotted that every sentence I have typed has terminated in a question mark? Throughout history there have been 136 recorded, attempted coups d’état. 15% of them have been in the last 6 years. This is a startling rise in the number of military uprisings. Switzerland has a population of 7,252,000, but a military of over 220,000 people. Us Brits only have 140-odd thousand troops, including the territorial army! And we have a population over 8 times that of Switzerland. The Swiss haven’t been in a war since the 1700s and all of the wars they have started have been civil wars, normally about tax. Does this not cry out coup d’état in quite a loud voice? (Another question there) The Swiss have a massive army which seems to be doing nothing at the moment, so eventually they will get bored and overthrow the government. Either that or try and create a Navy.
September 24th, 2006 at 11:37 am
Well that is a large army, but at least we can boast a considerably larger navy. As I recented found out, Switzerland does not have a navy, so to speak. But it does have about 18 military patrol boats in the border lake regions i.e Geneva. Whereas The Royal Navy has 90 comissioned ships which consist of 2 aircraft carriers (HMS Illustrious (the flagship) and HMS Ark Royal, 3 large amphibious craft, 17 frigates, 8 destroyers and 13 nuclear powered subramines. Ah and look Rob, a type 23 frigate named after your very own town of birth! Bizarre !