It was obvious from the start of the newly implemented Counter Insurgency tactics that Her Majesty’s Armed Forces weren’t up to the task at hand in Iraq.
Great Britain has the finest trained, most dedicated and hardworking Armed Forces in the world. That’s not Jingoism, it’s fact. They are simply better trained and better soldiers man for man than their US counterparts – GIs aren’t incompetent, they are every bit as fierce and brave and extremely technically proficient, they simply aren’t trained as thoroughly as Her Majesty’s men and women are.
However for the past 25 years, Her Majesty’s forces have endured nothing but disrespect and downright endangerment of their lives from politicians in the United Kingdom.
I am absolute in my respect for the soldiers of the United States, I do not impugn their honour nor their valour. They are exceptional and have stepped up time and time again to defend the liberty of their fellow man. However I will not hear an ill word spoken about the British armed forces.
Do you want to know why the Her Majesty’s forces stepped out of Basra? It’s because the Department of Defense rightly recognized that they couldn’t fight.
HM Armed Forces are phenomenal peacekeepers and excellent in a skirmish or a limited operation but for the sort of endless, protracted engagement which Gen. Petraeus’ COIN requires they simply are not equipped to cope.
The Department of Defense recognized and I hope felt ASHAMED of this fact. The Royal Army, Navy and Air Force have had nothing but cuts to their budget for decades and now find that they simply don’t have the logistical support necessary to fight the war on terror.
The bulldog has been neutered to pay for our bloated government (which has actually used the Armed Forces MORE at a time when it has cut its funding to pay for more extensive social programmes).
It finally came to this – the public disgrace and humiliation of the finest fighting men and women in the world.
I am disgusted with my country’s leaders. My great grandfather escaped from 3 Axis P.O.W. camps and made it within half a mile of the advancing Allied line before being recaptured and sent to the concentration camp at Belsan (which he survived). He was not an atypical soldier, just an example of the outstandingly brave people that make up Her Majesty’s Armed Forces.
Men and women of the same calibre are being asked to make the same sacrifices for us today and the most our Politicians can do is trade and swindle behind their backs even as they rob them of the means to actually carry out their duty safely and effectively.
I love Great Britain and I love America, please do not let the pathetic duplicity and irresponsibility of our political leaders tarnish the honour of either the British people or Her Majesty’s Armed Forces.
