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Rogue heroes?

This article by ForcesWatch was first published in Peace News April-May 2023

The 22nd Special Air Service regiment, better known as the SAS, occupies a unique place in the British public consciousness. For many, it embodies notions of an elite level of valour and heroism coupled with the mystique of state secrecy and a certain roguish prestige.

Even within the military, these troops are often seen as almost supernaturally tough and skilled. A sense of barely-governed violence attaches to them, which results in nicknames like ‘blades’ and ‘pilgrims’.

The SAS mythology begins in the Second World War, but at various points the SAS ideal has been re-invigorated and re-shaped around particular operations or moments in military and national history. Two examples would be the Iranian Embassy siege in London in 1980 or the failed Bravo Two Zero patrol in Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War.

Contrary to its cultural impact, 22 SAS is a small unit estimated to have between 400 and 600 personnel. Until a change of policy in 2018 allowing women in frontline combat, the unit was exclusively male.

“The SAS exists at an odd point of tension in British culture, in that it is both intensely secretive and, at the same time, many of its activities are very well-known”

Based near Hereford in the West Midlands, the SAS is the largest element of UK special forces.… Read more

Mutual militarisation: the budget and NATO spending

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a flagrant and brutal violation of the most fundamental principle of international law. The initial invasion has been followed by numerous atrocities, including the bombing and shelling of civilians, the deliberate targeting of critical civilian infrastructure, massacres of civilians in conquered territory, and – for which Russian President Vladimir Putin has now been indicted – the kidnap of Ukrainian children and their transfer to Russia to be placed with Russian families.

The invasion has sent shock waves around the world (not least in poorer countries faced with soaring food prices), and has reshaped security calculations not only in Europe, but also in the Asia Pacific, another theatre of superpower competition. The response of the West has included sweeping sanctions on Russia, though still failing to close all loopholes by which Putin allies launder their plundered wealth, and massive military support for Ukraine.

Military spending increases

But it has also greatly accelerated an existing trend – in part spurred by Russia’s earlier intervention in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea in 2014 – towards higher military spending, including in the UK. The Spending Review of November 2020 included a £24 billion increase in military spending over 4 years (compared to existing levels), and now the 2023 Spring Budget has made a further £7.1 billion increase over the current and coming two years (compared to previous plans), up to 2024-25 – in addition to the UK’s military aid to Ukraine, which should be counted in most definitions of military spending, and which is expected to total £4.6 billion in 2022 and 2023.… Read more

Unpicking British Army recruitment adverts

Screenshot of British Army recruitment advert The Flood.

Searchlights pass over a disaster scene at night as the camera surveys a flooded residential area. A helicopter can be heard flying low over partially submerged cars whilst soldiers in combat uniform wade through the water among the vehicles. The camera discovers a young black soldier. Then we flashback. The soldiers are in the back of a truck on the way to the disaster scene. One wields a small high-tech device as it guides them to the location of the emergency. They arrive and pour off the vehicle into the water.

The soldiers find a woman trapped in the driver’s seat of a flooded vehicle – she gestures frantically to the back seat where there is a baby. The young black soldier, established early as the main protagonist, opens the passenger door and lifts the child out. He holds it close and talks reassuringly to it. The camera lingers over this tender moment. The soldier lifts the child to the mother, who is now safe, wearing a space blanket in a dinghy. In this final phase of the advert, during which the soldier looks tired and relieved, a voice over tell us: “The army is more advanced than ever, but nothing can do what a soldier can do.”… Read more

The MPs and the arms company reps

Screenshot of the seating arrangement for the 2021 Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme graduation dinner. It shows six tables around which are seats MPs, ministers, military top brass and representatives from some of the worlds largest arms companies.

In November 2021 ForcesWatch released its first investigation into the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme (AFPS), an annual ‘course’ that purports to educate MPs and Peers about the daily experience of service personnel. To do so, the AFPS puts parliamentarians in uniform and lets them get tactile with tanks, helicopters and automatic weapons. It is as if MPs live vicariously through the Scheme, which presents a kind of martial optics for them to burnish their militarist credentials.

The Conservatives have traditionally enjoyed organic connections to the military and have always been well represented on the AFPS, but an ever increasing number of Labour MPs are taking part. Although this trend began long before Keir Starmer became leader of the party – and started appealing to the patriotism he believes is key to winning back the Red Wall – our analysis shows that many recent participants are on the Labour front bench.

This has a number of implications. Firstly, the Scheme further normalises close connections with – and a favourable ‘understanding’ of – the military as a prerequisite for elected officials. Secondly, with Labour high in the polls, there is a real chance that key brief holders in the next government will have been exposed to military and arms industry influence.… Read more

From Militant to Military Labour

The UK is experiencing a period of industrial militancy. Transport workers, dockers and postal workers have all been out on strike in recent weeks. Even barristers have taken to picketing, while nurses and firefighters are balloting on walk-outs. Strikes invariably inspire reaction, in every sense of the word. One mode of that reaction, especially when strikes shutdown key industries or public services, are calls to summon the army as “scab” labour to keep vital services running.

The practicalities of bringing in soldiers to run the ticket barriers at Euston or Lime Street, let alone operate trains, should be enough to put anyone off. And yet the calls emerge each time, especially on social media. And in truth, the British military has stepped in during periods of militant worker’s activity in the past. Generally, they do so in one of two ways: the first, to break strikes with force, actual or implied; and secondly, to literally step in and take over jobs worker’s have withdrawn their labour from. We will examine both, as well as the prospects for them reoccurring now.

This is relevant not only because of the current climate of organised labour activity, but because of the increasing lionisation of the military in public life during the transition to power of a fourth Tory prime minister in 12 years.… Read more

Overselling the Military

A powerfully built robot lopes tirelessly across an apocalyptic battlefield. It weaves its way through shattered buildings, past burned out cars, crushing a rusted oil drum underfoot without breaking pace. A sensor built into its head emits beams of light as it stops, limbs rotating inhumanely while it appears to assess the horizon. The scene zooms deep into the robot’s camera-like eye as a woman’s voice, itself robotically altered, asked us:

‘What does the army of the future look like?’

The camera pulls back from the eye. It now belongs to a young female soldier. She’s intensely focused, her face beaded with sweat. A further adjustment to the shot shows she is holding a small helicopter drone in an outstretched hand. It flies into the air, and we are told, in the same robotic voice:

‘It looks… like you.’

Another woman’s voice – not robotic this time – takes over:

‘In the future, technology will help us do incredible things. But nothing can do, what a soldier can do.’

Behind the woman, other soldiers appear, mucky from battle, rifles raised to their shoulders, as they advance through the bombed-out ruins. Another big zoom out and we see vehicles and infantry advancing determinedly through a shattered village towards some distant location several hills away.… Read more

The Military-Entertainment Complex

War films populated our video collection as a child. My dad would watch them regularly. Oliver Stone’s Platoon was a favourite. Hamburger Hill, another, more down-market Vietnam movie, featured prominently. Heartbreak Ridge, which had a grizzled Clint Eastwood whip a group of errant marines into shape in time for the US invasion of Grenada, was virtually always on. Iron Eagle, a slightly budget Top Gun substitute with a powerful coming of age narrative, was wheeled out occasionally. And of course Top Gun itself, which would often be playing on a Sunday.

I was born in 1982 and watched these films during the early 90s. None of these movies were remotely political artifacts for me at that time. They were simply stories, and exciting ones at that, absorbed without any acute judgment at all. Three decades on I am far better informed. And with a long-awaited sequel to Top Gun in cinemas, it is worth examining both the implications of militarism in movies and why military intervention in culture is so prevalent.

The second coming of Maverick

Released in 1986, Top Gun was an action-packed Cold War story which centred US naval aviators and provided a vehicle for Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer and Meg Ryan to launch their Hollywood careers. … Read more

The Qatari Connection

The announcement that the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy will take part in counter-terrorism operations during the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup in Qatar caused relatively little stir when announced at the end of May. Perhaps many in the UK are numb to Britain’s relationships with violent Gulf monarchies and the merging of international sports events with militarist values. Whilst our relationships in the Gulf may vary, there is one constant between them: British military support and huge deals for UK defence companies.

Unsurprisingly, the relationships are riddled with inconsistencies. Britain claims to hold itself as a guardian of human rights and a notional international order based around the rule of law – but on Qatar, as with other Gulf allies, this claim falls apart. Even more so when we take into account the UK’s pursuit of an exclusive deal for Qatari natural gas and how this has, in the past few months, been framed as the answer to reliance on Russian gas in the wake of the Ukraine invasion. Given these conditions, the military relationship between Qatar and the UK has a number of unique and interesting features that warrant closer examination. We decided to take a deeper look at how the two countries have been, and increasingly are, intertwined on matters of war, security and trade.… Read more

Thinking through ‘Lethal Aid’

The term “lethal aid” has come to the fore of public discourse since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine began on 24th February. Unable to intervene directly for fear of an escalation into a wider conflict between nuclear powers, the NATO and non-NATO nations which back Ukraine settled for channeling arms and military equipment to the beleaguered country’s military forces. Yet, British, US and other NATO member support for the Ukrainian armed forces predates the current invasion, stretching back to the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. As a result, Ukraine has, in some ways, become the epicenter of a proxy-war between certain NATO countries and Russia over the past eight years. What has changed is the nature of that support, morphing from the training of the armed forces to providing an ever increasing arsenal of weapons. ForcesWatch took a brief look at the notion of lethal aid, the varied nature of its form, and what its potential implications are for the future.

UK leading the logistical support for weapons to Ukraine.

The British government has certainly tried to position itself as a key provider of lethal aid to the Ukrainian state since the invasion. As early as 23 February – a day before Russian forces crossed the border – Boris Johnson was promising packages of support which would include ‘lethal aid in the form of defensive weapons and non-lethal aid’.