Towards_the_gap
Sr. Member
- Reaction score
- 3
- Points
- 230
Found this.........depressing reading to say the least.
Does anyone else see paralells with the CF of the '90's after government cutbacks?
Shared in accordance with the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
www.thebusiness.co.uk
Immorality of forcing the military
Britain had 72 helicopters in Northern Ireland at the height of the IRA; but only 28 in Iraq last year.
Over the past decade the government has failed the one public service that never fails the country..
In Iraq and Afghanistan, British troops are confronted daily with the shameful fact that they are now, more than ever, the best-trained but worst equipped advanced military in the world. Servicemen’s lives are regularly and unnecessarily put in harm’s way as a result of the use of obsolete or defective equipment and weaponry, in an unforgivable dereliction of duty on the part of the political classes towards those who put their lives on the line.
Given the current state of the world, the belief that there remains a peace dividend to be spent is utterly misguided. One vivid illustration of this short-sighted and destructive policy – one of the great but still largely untold disasters of the Blair years – were the devastating pictures published last week of two British soldiers clinging to the sides of an Apache helicopter on a rescue mission. An RAF Chinook was two minutes away, but it is a flying bus and an easy bulls-eye for the Taliban; the soldiers were safer hanging on the side of the Apache than inside the Chinook. Had the Canadian, American or Dutch forces been on a similar mission in enemy territory to rescue a fallen comrade, their troops would not be dangling from the outside of a helicopter but travelling in one: probably a Huey, a Eurocopter or one of the many troop-carrying helicopters which their governments have furnished them with.
full article here
http://www.thebusiness.co.uk/Document.aspx?id=CF87744E-13B8-49C6-8D55-D97C52860A49&doc_page=1
Does anyone else see paralells with the CF of the '90's after government cutbacks?
Shared in accordance with the Fair Dealings provisions of the Copyright Act.
www.thebusiness.co.uk
Immorality of forcing the military
Britain had 72 helicopters in Northern Ireland at the height of the IRA; but only 28 in Iraq last year.
Over the past decade the government has failed the one public service that never fails the country..
In Iraq and Afghanistan, British troops are confronted daily with the shameful fact that they are now, more than ever, the best-trained but worst equipped advanced military in the world. Servicemen’s lives are regularly and unnecessarily put in harm’s way as a result of the use of obsolete or defective equipment and weaponry, in an unforgivable dereliction of duty on the part of the political classes towards those who put their lives on the line.
Given the current state of the world, the belief that there remains a peace dividend to be spent is utterly misguided. One vivid illustration of this short-sighted and destructive policy – one of the great but still largely untold disasters of the Blair years – were the devastating pictures published last week of two British soldiers clinging to the sides of an Apache helicopter on a rescue mission. An RAF Chinook was two minutes away, but it is a flying bus and an easy bulls-eye for the Taliban; the soldiers were safer hanging on the side of the Apache than inside the Chinook. Had the Canadian, American or Dutch forces been on a similar mission in enemy territory to rescue a fallen comrade, their troops would not be dangling from the outside of a helicopter but travelling in one: probably a Huey, a Eurocopter or one of the many troop-carrying helicopters which their governments have furnished them with.
full article here
http://www.thebusiness.co.uk/Document.aspx?id=CF87744E-13B8-49C6-8D55-D97C52860A49&doc_page=1
