Red rag to a bull

I do not know the first thing about how to maintain the fight against global terrorism and instability or how to establish a high security zone around a hhg profile target. If I did I wouldn't be in Admin Support. Generally speaking the bun and coffee guzzling pubic in the UK are more interested in Saturday night televised talent shows and celebrity bra sizes than our security. We have never really been subjected to details of what our army and more stealthy security services get up to to unless something unavoidably dramatic catches them in the headlights. We only knew about the SAS with the Iranian embassy siege and then the chaps wore balaclavas so that no-one would recognise them in Wimpy Burgers or the Dog and Duck. The fully televised Falklands incident showed our boys in all their gear and all our high end hardware at work and since. Since then the SAS have had been centre stage with all kinds of TV shows – just like Big Brother 12 hopefuls wannabees start off the gruelling 12 week show with one dropping out each week when another impossible endurance test defeats them. And then there have been the various incarnations of the Crusades going on in the Middle East and we can, if we are bothered still, catch a glimpse of our forces’ new model tank or truck or the new gear they get to wear. But all of these snippets are just that - they do not really show what our boy’s are doing. But, in the week when the body in the bag MI6 operative is openly referred to as a spy and his cause of death is still unknown (though at some point it will be suggested he got in the bag himself), the government has revealed to the world key elements of the security for the Jubilee and Olympics: big fast armoury laden boats on the Thames; snipers in helicopters to take out pilots of planes behaving suspiciously; missile launchers on top of blocks of flats. Why is the world being shown this? Does the government want to reassure visitors to Britain – even though they may spend the entire Olympic Games stuck in a queue at immigration – that they are safe in our hands, or, are they trying to put the fear of God(s) into any potential terrorist? I’d prefer they didn’t go around telling everyone what they are doing. It’s like given the code for the alarm to a burglar.