CDR SALAMANDER ON THE DRAGON’S DECLINE: “For over a century, there was one jewel in the special relationship between the United States of America and her mother country, Great Britain. That jewel was the Royal Navy.” “We need to stop pretending we have a Royal Navy we knew in our youth or even that of two decades ago. No, we have something altogether different. Something shrunken. Something weaker. Something that is, in the end, really sad. A symptom of a nation who has lost an enthusiasm for herself or even an understanding of her national interest and led by a ruling class that seems uninterested in stewardship.”
It’s bad for nations to be ruled by a ruling class that fundamentally hates them.
UPDATE: Ouch:
"Emmanuel Macron has insisted Cyprus can 'count on France' as he rubbed salt in the wound of Britain's military embarrassment.
A glossy video posted on social media by Mr Macron overnight shows him posing with forces personnel and a variety of impressive military hardware…
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) March 10, 2026
But:
The media hasn't noticed the French collapse in Africa yet. It will probably take some debacle analogous to what happened to the Royal Navy, to make that evident. https://t.co/jfWTnYgAmW
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) March 10, 2026
The other collapse. Still unnoticed by the media but as significant in its own way as the decline of the British Royal Navy is the end of permanent French military presence in West and Central Africa.
From 2022 to mid-2025, France faced a series of expulsions and requested…
— wretchardthecat (@wretchardthecat) March 10, 2026
Perhaps the French have been bringing the troops home to defend France from its internal African population.