Now it's not just the likes of me and the posters on AARSE claiming that Gordon McBroon is directly responsible for the high casualties that the Army are suffering in Afghanistan.
Lord Guthrie seems to have decided to go public.
Not before time, he should have spoken out much earlier. And no wonder that Jonah keeps well clear of the coffins.
The Penguin
3 comments:
It's not just about penny pinching but also priorities (both in resources and tactics) and procurement - the MOD have consistently insisted on buying the wrong vehicles - Vectors, Vixens, Vikings are not blast resistant. Operating the wrong tactics - relying on lightly armoured vehicles that are vulnerable to IEDs rather than improve the bridges and roads (even Bailey bridges would be an improvement) so that the troops can move their heavier vehicles effectively and traders can get their produce to market and IEDs are harder to install. Refusing to take effective action - we have had a chronic shortage of helicopters when we could have been leasing the same ex-Soviet choppers the UN often uses.
Bridges and roads = effective army. Bridges and roads = better trade. This has been known since Roman times. To bring peace we need to bring prosperity as well as blowing shit up.
We were going into one of the most heavily mined countries on the planet. We could and should have had blast resistant vehicles before we went in. Alvis used to make them! Had we developed those designs we would be in the position Force Protection is now - a world leader in the supply of blast resistant vehicles.
In terms of raw money, the Government and MOD Top Brass collude to spend large amounts on Euro-centric and immensely complicated projects - A400M, FRES, the European Rapid Reaction Force, Type 45 destroyers. All this has stolen time and money from the regular job of the MOD. too much planning for another Cold War and not enough planning for the wars we are already in.
With regard to the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns the Government has been spending like buggery at the MOD's request - £10billion already. This hasn't come out of the MOD's budget either, it has come from a thing called the Treasury Reserve. The MOD isn't under-funded. The MOD keeps buying the wrong things and Parliament too often defers to MOD 'experts' who have their own agenda.
We learned harsh lessons in Northern Ireland, Aden, Malaya and elsewhere and simply have not applied them to the Iraq or Afghanstan campaigns.
Have a good read of Defence of the Realm for a different view to that of Lord Guthrie.(It's quite a slog, Richard North is prolific with his posts)
Apologies for the length of the comment.
When was it that blair said " of course you can have anything you need, just tell me what you need and I'll move heaven and earth to make sure you get it " ?
Another blair lie.
Gareth, agreed but let's not forget that The Ministry Of Defence is not the same as The Armed Services who often regard the former as The enemy.
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