British General Threatens Military Coup If Corbyn Elected
Late last week we brought you a collection of vivid images from a military coup in the West African nation of Burkina Faso where forces aligned with former President Blaise Compaoré arrested the acting President and Prime Minister ahead of democratic elections planned for October.
To be sure, most observers would argue that the idea of military coups like the one described above occurring with any sort of regularity in the context of the developed world is far-fetched at best, but a growing disaffection with what many see as endemic corruption and ineptitude has not only served to catapult two dark horse presidential candidates to the top of the polls in the US but apparently has some Americans convinced that a military takeover might be preferable to the current system of governance as the following poll (which admittedly suffers from selection bias) from YouGov shows:
Well, don’t look now but the ascension of Jeremy Corbyn to the head of Britain’s Labour party has led at least one senior serving general to predict that a Corbyn government would face the very real possibility of a military “mutiny”. Here’s more from The Independent:
The unnamed general said members of the armed forces would begin directly and publicly challenging the labour leader if he tried to scrap Trident, pull out of Nato or announce “any plans to emasculate and shrink the size of the armed forces.”
He told the Sunday Times: “The Army just wouldn’t stand for it. The general staff would not allow a prime minister to jeopardise the security of this country and I think people would use whatever means possible, fair or foul to prevent that. You can’t put a maverick in charge of a country’s security.
“There would be mass resignations at all levels and you would face the very real prospect of an event which would effectively be a mutiny.”
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