The Army Is Too Small To Fight All Of The Battles Facing Britain -- The Telegraph
We have to decide what we really want from our Armed Forces, argues Allan Mallinson.
As General Sir Richard Dannatt steps down as Chief of the General Staff (CGS) this week, what will be the legacy of his outspokenness; and what lies ahead for his successor, General Sir David Richards?
"I want an Army in five and 10 years' time," said Sir Richard in 2006. It was as urgent as that, for the Army was in his words "running hot", and public disquiet over Iraq and Afghanistan was having an increasingly negative effect on soldiers' morale. It should not have been his fight, though. When New Labour came to power it carried out a strategic defence review (SDR), hailed by senior officers and commentators at the time as a model of strategic thinking, not least because many of them had been flattered into thinking they had contributed in the consultative process. This review stands in retrospect as a model of spin, however, for the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, simply refused to fund it.
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My Comment: They should have figured all of this out before making the commitments that they did. Talk about poor leadership and planning .... and it is the soldier in the front line who suffers.
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