In Defence of , Peace

"Urban terrorism ts a sertous threat. We must treat tt sertously".

Thus concludes a recently-published significant pamphlet from the Conservative Political Centre entitled " In Defence of Peace ",which accords the deepest importance to Brigadier Frank Kitson's " Low Intenstty Operations ".

This pamphlet by seven prominent Conservatives all connected with Defence, floats many ideas on the subject of future military policy and expenditure, which found its way into the British Government's White Paper on Defence.

From both publications it appears that the British ruling machine has learnt much from its Army in the Six Counties and has already developed strategy gained from the drish experience for application to possible political conflict in Britain.

" Internal security and defence agatnst sabotage within the U.K. ts likely to be a major problem in pertods of tenston. "

Lord Carrington, the Defence Minister gave his personal blessing to " In Defence of Peace ", and amongst its proposals is a call for increasing the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve ( TAVR ), already 54,000 strong.

" As tnternal security and defence agatnst sabotage within the U.K. ts ltkely to be a major problem in pertods of tenston, let alone in war, the uncommitted reserve ts too small, espectally as the police force ts undermanned ", states the pamphlet, " the strength of the uncommitted reserve should be doubled to enable tt to expand still further, should the need artse. " On Internal Security, the pamphlet makes three noteworthy recommendat-— ~ ions. Firstly, " When tt comes to dealing wtth a crowd of stone-throwtng hooligans on the edge of the Bogstde, the equtpment that the soldter carries makes him look ltke a Roman soldter confronting a Stetltan mob in the first century A.D. Britain needs more effective non - lethal weapons." /Secondly;” We must remind ourselves constantly that a study of the Major-General Frank Kitson techniques of terrorism must now be an tntegral part of every frontline soldier's career. In recent years, some of the best studies of terrorism to be found anywhere have been published in this country by authors ltke Brigadier Frank Kitson, Brian Crozter and Robert Moss, but we have lagged behind other countrtes tn making counter - terrorism acttvittes an important part of normal training."

Tory " The Lack of formal tratntng has been offset by the commonsense and wide expertence of our regular soldters, but tnevitably a study of counter- terrorism ts going to tnvo-lve the armed forces in a closer study of current poltttes. "

Thirdly, recommends the pamphlet, " We must pay more attentton to our intelligence services. It would not be an exaggeratton to say that our Speetal Branches have been tin a depressed state at the beginntng of every counter - terrorist campaign that we have fought. Our armed forces have not been able to operate effectively until thts; weakness was cleared up."

Such thinking was not specifically shared on a Ministerial level when the White Paper on Defence Estimates for the coming year was published a short time ago. Statistics were given to show just how effective a training ground Northern Ireland was proving for the British Army, which cost Westminister £29 million last year.

Over 46,000 Army personnel had “been moved in rotation through the Province last year, but no further indication of Defence policy either in N.I. or in Britain was given in Women held in Armagh Prison were beaten up and had fire hoses turned on them by male warders and British — Widgery.

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE trains and the docks ? ". poltce to handle. The recent publication of " Protest and the Urban Guerilla " by Major -General Richard Clutterbuck, a noted propagandist of the Army cause, is a fair indication of current military thinking, and the book contains a large section on Northern Ireland, including a defence of the Bloody Sunday massacre, even more convinced and complete than that of Lord THE ULTIMATE DETERRENT TO The role of the Army as an Armed Police Force to preserve at all cost the established status quo was again stressed by a Wing - Commander H.R. Allen in the Letters Page of a recent " Sunday Times ". He wrote; " No government can rule wtthout an ulttmate deterrent to etvil disobedtence - what would have happened in 1926, during the General Striké, tf the Royal Engineers had not been. avatlable to handle, for example, the At this point, we would do well to examine again the thoughts of Brig. Frank Kitson, from his "” Low Intenstty Operations " textbook.

" Tf a genutne and serious grievance arose, such as mtght result from a stgntfteant drop tn the standard of ltving, all those who now disstp- land. ate thetr protest over a wide variety of causes might concentrate their pared ? efforts and introduce a sttuatton whteh was beyond the power of the Should this happen, the Army would might have grave consequences even to the extent of undermintng confidence in the whole system of government."

THE LESSONS OF NORTHERN IRELAND A common thread ‘running through the ideas of those such as Kitson and Clutterbuck, and indeed the whole galaxy of those who make up the Whitehall -based Institute for the Study of Conflict, is that the Army is overtly an arm of the State which must where and when necessary serve to protect the State.

Social conditions such as massive unemployment, are seen as factors that could provoke insurgency in ‘Britain. But the priority is consistently the preservation of the status quo, no matter how rotten and rotting, and never a consideration of the social factors.

Defence is the sole consideration and, when and if the crunch comes, those who attack,whether by petrolbombs, disruption or merely by demonstrations ,will be the enemy whom the Army must crush.

The British ruling class and its mercenaries in the British Army, has indeed learnt its lessons well in Northern Ireland, and is ready to deal with the situation on the mainIs the Brittsh Left similarly pre-