Camping in February, hens and all
Clare checks the hills
Your humble correspondent
Ben Knowle Hill from the SE
As we worry about extracting British oil workers from the Libyan desert, it's tempting to think that a nearby carrier would come in handy (we won't have any soon). Trouble is, they take an age to get there, and against any hostile power more ept than Libya is right now, you need a full battle-group to protect it. That costs. And right now we have Malta.
What you really want for this kind of operation are Chinooks for the extraction and fighter aircraft or drones for close-in air support. I would hope, BTW, that the skies above Tripoli are currently black with Predators. If Gaddafi shows himself, a hellfire missile launch would be awfully tempting. Would save God knows how many lives.
