HMS Enterprise due in Cork
cork |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report 
Tuesday August 05, 2008 22:40
by Cork Warship Watch
A Royal Navy ship, HMS Enterprise is due in the port of Cork tomorrow morning (Wednesday) where she will tie up at the city's North Custom House Quay.
While HMS Enterprise is primarily a hydrographic survey ship and does not carry any major armaments, she is what is decriped as a multi-role vessel and has been used as a support vessel in British Royal Navy operations and NATO naval exercises.
According to the Royal Navy, "Enterprise sailed again in September 2005 to conduct a comprehensive Oceanographic survey in the Gulf of Aden and Somali Basin as well as a collaborative Hydrographic survey with the Saudi Military off the coast of Saudi Arabia, in support of UK government foreign policy". One can take it that this was related to oil and its sidekick, war.
More from the Royal Navy, "HMS Enterprise represents a major improvement to the Royal Navy’s surveying and general environmental data gathering ability. She is able to collect information on all aspects of the environment (from the seabed to the upper atmosphere), process and send this information to Warfare Commanders in real time. This information allows the Navy to use weapons systems to the best advantage, therefore enhancing war-fighting ability".
So while it isn't a frigate or destroyer it is a vital part of the Royal Navy / NATO military muscle and while its decks aren't bristling with big guns or rocket launchers HMS Enterprise is certainly not completely without weaponry.
All of this is part of the increasing "ordinariness" of foreign military vessels to our ports which goes hand in hand with the military use of our airports, particularly Shannon.
HMS Enterprise is due in Cork around 6.00am tomorrow (Wednesday) morning and is expected to stay at the city quays for several days.
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Additional info - HMS Enterprise is here until 1pm next Monday, 11th August 2008.
HMS Enterprise
May I take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to the vessel and its crew. The Ship has done fantastic work surveying the Port of Basra, allowing the People of iraq to create an economy again. Its work in the area of Drug Enforcement should also not go unnoticed.
Welcome to Cork, A safe Harbour for ALL ships.
Is that so Poopeye?
Are you not forgetting that the economy and social structure of Iraq was decimated by the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, including a blockade enforced by, amongst others, the same Royal Navy? The UN operated "Oil for Food" programme is recognised as having been a disaster for the people of Iraq of whom several million died as a result of sanctions. The programme was riddled with corruption from the top down, with money being syphoned off, not just by Saddam Hussein's lackeys but also by its adminstrators. Much of the oil revenue earned was deducted for war reparations while basics such as medicines and food were affected by a quota system.
The Royal Navy's colleagues and friends in the British and US airforces also bombed much of Iraq's infrastructure throughout the period 1990 to the beginning of the second Gulf War in 2003, causing massive damage to infrastructure including roads and public water supplies which caused a huge increase in water-borne diseases and deaths due to hypothermia during Iraq's extremely cold winters. Even some of the operating theatres in Baghdad's hospitals were affected by power cuts and for several years the city had power for only a short few hours every day.
Then "Operation Enduring Freedom" was launched - freedom by bombing from 40,000ft with indiscriminate deaths and bombings of hospitals, schools and other public buildings. Not forgetting "Shock & Awe", collateral damage, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and the torture planes.
Whatever improvements have taken place in the Iraq economy since 2003 have been primarily because of the lifting of sanctions and the benefits have not gone to the Iraqi people since the primary aim of the invasion was to capture Iraqs oilfields. Its industry was privatised on the orders of the United States appointed gauleiter Paul Bremer who sanctioned foreign ownership of 100% of Iraqi companies and repatriation of all profits made, while at the same time ensuring major contracts were awarded to companies connected to US Vice-President Dick "Halliburton" Cheney.
So you want us to accept that the Royal Navy did the people of Iraq a favour by bombing them, starving them, subjecting them to disease and severe hardship and then robbing them blind?
HMS "Enterprise" (Enterprise = theft)
The Motto of Cork may be "Statio Bene Fide Carinis" but it should never be "Statio Bene Fide Tyrannus" ( A safe place for tyrants).
Of course the RN and all the other navies caused all the problems in Iraq..
Saddam had nothing to do with it...
Where can I buy Blinkers like yours John?
It was not the Left which gave succour, support, bombs and chemical weapons to Saddam Hussein but those you admire so much. We condemned Saddam and his henchmen when Donald Rumsfeld and others were playing him off against the Ayatollahs during the Iran / Iraq war. The progressive Left aways condemned Saddam Hussein.
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