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Five Wars Blair to reduce our illustrious fighting Regiments.
* * ‘Don’t ask us to keep the
peace as well, Mr Blair.’ by General Sir Michael Rose- Former Commanding Officer of
the SAS who led the UN Forces in Bosnia. Daily
Mail, Tuesday, 22nd July 2004. Tony
Blair is now engaged in his [sixth] war in ten years and is arguably the
most warmongering British Prime Minister since Lord Palmerston. Yet he does not seem to understand that wars not only cost lives, but they also cost a great deal of money. Even in periods of prolonged peace, defence cannot be
obtained on the cheap-partly because we have to keep up with new developments
in military technology but also because of the considerable expense of
maintaining all-volunteer forces. Look
at America, where President Bush has waged a war against terrorism since
September 11, 2001. He
has increased the U.S. defence budget by 35 per cent- from $76.4 billion to
$104.8billion- and has raised the strength Of
his fighting services by 30,000 servicemen and women. In the same period, Mr Blair has made only marginal
increases in the defence budget while the strength of our Armed Forces has
been greatly reduced. At the end of the Cold War, the regular component of the British Army numbered 116,000 and the reservists 69,000. But
following yesterday’s announcement [Mon.21st July, 2004] by Geoffrey
Hoon , The
Regular Army will be cut again to 102,000 and the Territorial Army will remain
under recruited at 43,000 strong. The
Defence Secretary says we need to take account of the changed demands of
warfare. He
wants to invest in technological rather than manpower- what he calls a network
enabled capability- in order to identify targets rapidly and destroy them with
precision weaponry. Such
a capability, he rightly argues, would allow us rapidly to defeat an opponent
with few British causalities. He
cites the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan and that of Saddam Hussein in
Iraq as examples. The problem is that, while it is true that modern technology can rapidly prevail against such old fashioned armies, the corollary of war fighting is nation building, which is extremely manpower intensive. In
1994, in Bosnia, the UN had more than 23,000 peacekeepers just to help the
delivery of aid. NATO has estimated that it would take ten times that number to invade
the country and enforce a peace settlement. Today,
we have about half that number of soldiers in Iraq and, as a result, we are
failing. With
so few troops, we simply cannot achieve the minimum level of security necessary
for nation building. Each
day, scores of Iraqis are killed while re-construction is virtually at a
standstill. To
succeed- to bring the Iraqi the peace and freedom we promised-we need to deploy
far larger numbers of troops on the ground in Iraq and they will have to remain
there for prolonged periods of time. Moreover,
there has to be some rotation for those forces engaged in operations. As Former Adjutant General of the British army (responsible for manpower and human resources), I well know that a balanced force structure requires having twice the number of soldiers engaged on training and administration, as there are deployed on operations. In
addition, as we face new threats and challenges, a properly balanced military
force will also have a planned reserve capability in order to deal with
unforeseen contingencies. In
recent years, our Armed Forces have been too often over-stretched because there
was no such reserve. It
therefore makes absolutely no sense for Hoon to reduce manpower and it is
pointless developing a war –winning capability if we have insufficient numbers
of soldiers to win the subsequent peace. Our
Armed Forces have been starved of resources for too long. In
every Defence Review-, which incidentally seems to happen with increasing
frequency- the Secretary of State for Defence tries to justify successive
reductions against promised future technological enhancements. But history teaches us that it is men, not weapons who win wars-and
ultimately the peace Last
year, despite already serious under-manning in the Army, the Treasury
stopped all recruitment. It
is hard to quantify the effect that such a cynical abuse of political power and
continuing over-stretch are having on commitment and morale. Traditionally,
the regimental system enables soldiers to withstand much hardship, yet even
this is now under threat with plans to amalgamate old established county
regiments. Such
reforms will undoubtedly weaken the ties of loyalty and comradeship that That
causes men to fight in battle, and so willingly risk their lives in
peacekeeping. Of
course, Armed Forces must re-equip and restructure in order to meet the demands
of modern war and many of the future Army structure changes make good sense. But
the demands of the battlefield are enduring, and victory depends upon the
quality and commitment of our soldiers, sailors and airman. That
is why they need to be supported not merely with words but
materially-particularly if Tony Blair truly wishes to continue his strategy of
military intervention across the world. General Sir Michael Rose is Former Commanding Officer of the SAS who led the UN Forces in Bosnia.
* 13th October,2007
So You Want Out Of The EU
THEN WHY NOT SIGN THE RENUNCIATION of EU CITIZENSHIP http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Optout Details from petition creator With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty the people of Britain were given DUAL CITIZENSHIP -both EUROPEAN and BRITISH The extra tier of citizenship was thrust upon the people without their consent -and in many cases knowledge. The PEOPLE of GREAT BRITAIN should be allowed the option of opting out of the EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP if they so wish. The GOVERNMENT will then be able to provide those who have opted out with BRITISH DOCUMENTATION -only such as British (not EU) passports, driving licences and other national documents. EU laws will also NOT APPLY to those who HAVE OPTED OUT OF EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP * * * [Latest Addition - June07] * * *
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION to the EU
*
VOTE
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE TO SET YOU FREE
THE UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER BUT SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES. *
ONLY WILL BRING DEMOCRACY BACK TO THE ENGLISH PEOPLE * * MAY/07
[All underlined words have a separate bulletin] ADDED NOV 1-2015
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