Iron Maiden

Way back in the last millenium, a tough breed of British Pol raided Number 10 Downing Street as mercilessly as Sir Francis Drake raided the naughty Spaniards at St Augustine Florida over 400 years ago.

The 'Iron Maiden' Margaret Thatcher was elected PM and began wholesale trashing and thrashing of a failed ultra liberal socialized politic gone wrong.

"There has been a failure not only of policies but of the whole philosophy
on which they are based - the philosophy which elevates the state, dwarfs the
individual and enlarges the bureaucracy."

This is significant - and still echoes today in Great Britain. A recent poll by Telegraph UK reveals Baroness Thatcher would win an election faster today than one could say 'Sigue Sigue Sputnik'

"From 1979 to 1990, Lady Thatcher's three administrations transformed
post-war Britain. High among the achievements with which she is credited is
curbing the power of the trade unions. Her governments introduced a series of
reforms on secondary picketing and the closed shop that Labour has never
reversed.

Her leadership during the conflict with Argentina over the Falklands in
1982, her stand against the Soviet Union alongside Ronald Reagan that helped win
the Cold War and her programme of privatising previously state-owned industries
are also seen as high on her list of successes."

Margaret Thatcher was our longest serving prime minister of recent times
and the West's first female head of government. The "Iron Lady" is revered and
reviled to this day for transforming Britain with the help of her strong
leadership, her crack down on the trade unions, victory in the Falklands and her
famously combative attitude to the Europe Union."

The former PM has a considerable backlog of cool crazy one liners and deep statescraft that remains valid - perhaps even essential today. Her take on Soviet Union time Russia was spot on

"The men in the Soviet politburo don't have to worry about the ebb and flow of
public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything
before guns. They know that they are a super power in only one sense—the
military sense. They are a failure in human and economic terms. "

PM Thatcher's "Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World" blends realpolitik's containment and neoconish intervention - a combined strategy and tactical doctrine of sorts for constant confrontation and selective intervention.

"The threats that democracy faces at the dawn of the new millennium and on the
role that Western powers should play in the world's hot spots, especially in the
aftermath of September 11, 2001"

Great Britain's Iron Maiden or Iron Madame shares several cool comraderie confidants with future Regime Changers

"Interventions must be limited in number and overwhelming in their impact.

I should therefore prefer to restrict my guidelines to the following:

Don't believe that military interventions, no matter how morally justified,
can succeed without clear military goals

Don't take public opinion for granted -- but don't either underrate the degree to which good people will endure sacrifices for a worthwhile cause

Don't allow tyrants and aggressors to get away with it

And when you fight -- fight to win.

For my part, I favour an approach to statecraft that embraces principles, as long as it is not stifled by them; and I prefer such principles to be accompanied by steel along with good intentions.

And there will be confrontation and/or combat in dark scary places in the world where illegitimate despots and secret police torment their own people and their neighbours - until all regimes are changed - either the fun friendly way like the "Democratic Imperatives" or the old school way at the point of the world famous M 16 and a thousand cruise missiles.

Great Britain reports today that British Army cats in Afghanistan have taken the Lady PM's words to heart - celebrating the 7K Taliban bollocked while building a better future for others - the very def of humanitarianism.

UK Telegraph's glowingly describes and desires the return of her kind

"Lady Thatcher was always ready to pay the price of personal unpopularity in
order to sort things out. In troubled times, charm is an optional extra for
politicians; common sense and raw courage are not."

The Iron Maiden reminds Great Britain, Great Satan and the entire Free World - that Peace has a Price.

"The West as a whole in the early 1990s became obsessed with a 'peace dividend'
that would be spent over and over again on any number of soft-hearted and
sometimes soft-headed causes.

Politicians forgot that the only real peace dividend is peace."