Onward Christian Soldiers

Is Onward Christian Soldiers to be the Conservative slogan on military affairs in the coming general election? That would be consistent with General Sir Richard Dannatt GCB, CBE, MC (retired) assuming the role of Conservative adviser on “defence” and, post election, becoming a “defence” Minister in the Lords.

Why do I say that? Because General Dannatt regards the British armed forces as Christian soldiers called upon, by God no doubt, to resist the Islamist threat to our way of life, wherever it may show its ugly head in this world. That’s what he said in an interview with Sarah Sands in the Daily Mail on 12 October 2006 [1].

Here’s an extract:

The General is a practising Christian and this informs his views on the Army's role and place in society. He believes our weak values have allowed the predatory Islamist vision to take hold.

"We can't wish the Islamist challenge to our society away and I believe that the Army, both in Iraq and Afghanistan and probably wherever we go next, is fighting the foreign dimension of the challenge to our accepted way of life.

"We need to face up to the Islamist threat, to those who act in the name of Islam and in a perverted way try to impose Islam by force on societies that do not wish it. In the Cold War, the threats to this country were about armies rolling in. Threats now are not territorial but to the values of our country.”

These views about “the need to face up to the Islamist threat” to our way of life would not be out of place in the BNP. What’s more, unlike the BNP, the General seems to envisage British military intervention in Muslim countries continuing at infinitum to fight “the foreign dimension of the challenge to our accepted way of life”.

General Dannatt is, or is about to become, a senior figure in the Conservative Party. If an obscure Conservative councillor made remarks like these, the matter would produce national headlines, as the latest example of a backwoods head banger, who is out of place in the modern Conservative Party – and David Cameron would have summarily expelled him from the Party before the sun set.

Here’s more words of wisdom from the General:

“When I see the Islamist threat I hope it doesn't make undue progress because there is a moral and spiritual vacuum in this country. Our society has always been embedded in Christian values; once you have pulled the anchor up there is a danger that our society moves with the prevailing wind.

“There is an element of the moral compass spinning. I am responsible for the Army, to make sure that its moral compass is well aligned and that we live by what we believe in.

“It is said we live in a post-Christian society. I think that is a great shame. The Judaic-Christian tradition has underpinned British society. It underpins the British Army.”

When asked what this means for Muslim soldiers and their allegiance, he replied

“These are British Muslims who are also British soldiers. If they are prepared to take the Queen’s shilling they will go wherever the mission requires them to go.”

Lot’s of good stuff there for the Conservative manifesto section on “defence”.

Postscript

BNP foreign policy, as stated on its website, is:

“Britain’s foreign relations should be determined by the protection of our own national interest and not by our like or dislike of other nations’ internal politics. We would have no quarrel with any nation that does not threaten British interests. We will maintain an independent foreign policy of our own, and not a spineless subservience to the USA, the ‘international community’, or any other country.” [2]

If the Labour Government had such an enlightened policy, young men would not be coming home from Afghanistan in boxes or with parts of their bodies missing.

David Morrison

28 December 2009

References

[1] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410175/Sir-Richard-Dannatt--A-honest-General.html

[2] bnp.org.uk/policies/