Tony Bliar – What is going on with the Armed Forces?

[highcirrus]

I’ve just read Allan Mallinson’s particularly cogent Spectator review of Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion of Iraq by authors Gordon and Trainor.

Of particular chilling import is the review’s final section:

…… Before the invasion when there were suggestions that we might not be able to contribute, Rumsfeld famously described British troops as “work-arounds”. There is but a single reference to the Foreign Secretary:

While British officers were worried about the state of US planning, the civilians in Blair’s cabinet were more assured … Surely, argued Jack Straw, the United States would not take the momentous step of invading and occupying Iraq unless it was persuaded that it had a winning plan (for both the invasion and the occupation).

This faith-based assumption was repeated at every subordinate level, indeed.

The failure of post-war planning surely remains the unaddressed question for this country: the failure of intelligence and the botched assessments have been dealt with by official inquiries, fudged as they may have been. But the failure to anticipate the insurgency stands as the worst charge against Whitehall, not least the MoD, as well as of the Pentagon.

Even though victory was eventually ours in the Boer war, Kipling was trenchant in The Lesson. After the war there were brutally honest inquiries into the whole paraphernalia of defence. Without them and the consequent reforms, the British Expeditionary Force of 1914 would not have existed, let alone performed so crucially well. There are serious lessons to be drawn from the Iraq intervention, not least in the problems of asymmetric coalition warfare; and there are old ones to be relearned on the importance of mass. Yet the nation’s armed forces, the army in particular, just get smaller and smaller. What is going on?

Well Mr Bliar, what is going on? Can we perhaps have some brutally honest inquiries (instead of the usual pathetic whitewashes and your corollary litany of barefaced lies) into the whole paraphernalia of defence? Can we have a review of how disgracefully our forces, again, in particular the army, are treated by your government, when out in the field, carrying out your policies (which we all think are for your own personal aggrandisement)? Can we have a proper investigation as to why troops have not had proper body armour issued in Iraq and Afghanistan, why aircraft have not been fully safeguarded as far as current technology allows, against small arms fire and surface to air missiles? And can you also tell us why, once individuals are grievously wounded in the service of their country and in the furtherance of your policies, they are thrown on the scrap heap with little or nor compensation, following disgracefully expeditious medically discharged?

A Prime Minister is supposed to steer the country, as far as possible, on a reasonable course and in particular, nurture one of its most valuable and appreciating assets, its armed forces. You do neither and you disgrace your office.

[doubledolphins]

He must assume that he is safe today!

[Anotherpost75]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/05/22/publair1.jpg
So the Iraqis think they're the ones with
problems!!??

[jstars2]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/05/23/pwirq23.jpg
Youve got a job at No 10, any time you like
son - just as soon as we've dumped your
regiment

[airborne_artist]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/graphics/2006/05/23/ixd23big.gif

[tonkatechie]

A Prime Minister is supposed to steer the country, as far as possible, on a reasonable course and in particular, nurture one of its most valuable and appreciating assets, its armed forces. You do neither and you disgrace your office.
:D Hear hear!:D

[Skunkerama]

Why on earth didnt his personel security team dump him in a local market and let him make his own way back?

[Wyler]

My own personal opinion is that the disaster that is Iraq will mean no future Prime Minister will consider military force in any similar situation. Far from proving the need to expand and modernise our Armed Forces, I think the politicians will see them as a mine field (no pun intended). Enter Gordon Brown, more cuts, back burner, hello UK Defence Force, soon to be European Defence Force, an entity designed to nurture and support the Civil Service.

How very sad.

[nigegilb]

erm, I have to say I think you are wrong. Why do you think he got rid of Jack Straw and replaced him with Margaret? Mr Straw was getting far too independent esp with his views about Iran.

Hang on to your hats......

[Wyler]

Blair is increasingly isolated. He can posture all he wants. His days are numbered and there is no way Mr Brown will follow suit. Even if he was that way inclined there are sufficient backbenchers (and Cabinet members) who will kill any such move stone dead.

I guess we shall see in the not too distant future.

[nigegilb]

Wyler, all you say is true, but we march to the beat of US foreign policy. Gordon Brown is an Atlanticist, he will surely be keen to call the "business as usual" tune to placate Blairites. I am not as optimistic as you.

Do not forget that Cameron, Hague, Fox and the rest of the Tory inner shadow cabinet are even more pro Iraq War. They could shore up a Parliamentary vote. Remember how the Tories voted last time.

[Anotherpost75]

Iraq has tested Mr Blair's interventionism to destruction
Daily Telegraph, Rachel Sylvester, 23/05/2006

There is a "new beginning" for Iraq, said Tony Blair as he flew into Baghdad in a military helicopter, unannounced and under cover of darkness. Well, maybe there is in the Green Zone.

Despite the formation of a government of national unity, the Prime Minister seemed rather reluctant to leave the safety of the heavily fortified haven and wander the streets without a flak jacket, as Iraqis do.

Even as he arrived in Baghdad, two bombs exploded, killing at least five people. More than 50 died in sectarian fighting this weekend.

Since February, when the Shia shrine at Samarra was largely destroyed in an attack blamed on Sunni insurgents, the Baghdad morgue has reported the arrival of 1,100 corpses a month.

In Basra, the British troops are back in helmets. Iraqis talk of civil war. The US ambassador admitted recently that the invasion had opened a "Pandora's box". There is growing speculation that a country which had been held together artificially for years by a dictator may have to be broken into three.

The national unity government is riven by division. Although Nouri al-Maliki has been sworn in as Iraqi prime minister, two of the most important ministerial jobs - defence and interior - remain unfilled. If this is a "symbol of hope", as Mr Blair said, then I would not like to see his icon of despair.

Of course the Prime Minister wants to get British troops out of there as soon as is practically possible. He does not want to have to face any more grieving parents than he has to.

Yesterday, he announced a phased withdrawal to take place over the next four years. But there will be no mea culpa. According to those who know him well, Mr Blair cannot admit, even to himself, that the war in Iraq may have been a mistake. "How can he?" one minister told me. "So many people have died."

What is perhaps more surprising is that the traumas - both diplomatic and military - in Iraq have not shaken the Prime Minister's belief in the more general philosophy of what he calls humanitarian interventionism..........

..........It appeals to the Prime Minister's instinctive sense of optimism and willingness to take risks; it fits with his view that the kaleidoscope was shaken by September 11. There is also a resonance in the missionary fervour with what one Cabinet minister describes as "the God thing".

When he flies to Washington for talks with George Bush this week, Mr Blair will restate his commitment to humanitarian interventionism and make the case that international institutions - such as the United Nations - should be reformed so that they would be more likely to endorse it.

And yet in Iraq it looks, at the moment at least, as if liberal imperialism may have been tested to destruction, and not just in the moral depravity of the Abu Ghraib jail.

The truth is - as increasing numbers of people who once supported the war now accept - reality is more complicated than idealism……….

…………It seems unlikely that Gordon Brown, if he becomes prime minister, will follow his predecessor's approach to foreign policy. He is more cautious, more controlling, more pessimistic. "Nothing will be the same - this is an accident of Tony and his time," one of the Chancellor's allies said.

Mr Blair, however, remains a true believer. The Prime Minister is a fan of the Richard Curtis film Love Actually, in which a youthful leader (Hugh Grant) falls in love with his tea lady - in fact, his staff recently got Martine McCutcheon (the actress who plays the tea lady) to deliver him a mug of tea as a joke.

In the film, the British leader wins public approval by telling the American president that there are limits to the special relationship. Mr Blair knows he could raise some applause by doing the same. But you can be sure that he will not have what he calls a Love Actually moment in Washington this week.

So when Dubya and Bliar embark on their next big adventure, will the disbandment of British Army infantry regiments continue at a pace, will “war crimes” show trials of British soldiers be a regular feature of that campaign, will the same “couldn’t give a damn” “New Labour” attitude to military personal and equipment armour prevail and will whatever firepower is deployed by British forces be fully available or will it stay under the wraps of ROE designed by the First Flatmate (Lord Chancellor, close friend and former flatmate, Lord Falconer of Thoroton)? God help us!

[nigegilb]

I cannot see Brown saying no to US requests for help in a future conflict. Quickest way to sort out Iraq is to partition the country into 3, then watch Iranian influence reveal itself in Southern Iraq. This could be a good time to lobby a future Tory administration. If they are so fond of deploying our Armed Forces around the World then how about some hard pledges on increased funds for UK Military. The Tories can sniff power. In their desire to cosy up to US policy makers after Howard's personal disaster, they will be even keener to please the US administration.

Stand by to stand by.

[jstars2]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/05/22/publair1.jpg
Look, If Cameron can do scruff order, so can I!!

[Anotherpost75]

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/steve_bell/2006/05/22/stevebell512ready.jpg

Guardian, 24 May 2006. In tribute to Tony Blair's historic posturing....
er.....visit to Iraq.

[Grum Peace Odd]

Of course the Prime Minister wants to get British troops out of there as soon as is practically possible. He does not want to have to face any more grieving parents than he has to.Just how many grieving parents has he faced?

[JessTheDog]

Just how many grieving parents has he faced?

None. He has not visited any of the wounded or bereaved. I suspect he is too cowardly to face them and would rather schmooze with millionaires.

If I saw him in the street I would break his jaw. Scum.

[nigegilb]

He brings in law that allows hijackers to go free, rapists and murderers to stay in the UK. He orders the Military to go fight a war in Iraq which, according to a lawyer chum of mine in the Hague is widely considered illegal, then drafts further legislation to bang away military personnel for life if they disagree with him.

His refusal to speak to the bereaved relatives and wounded soldiers smacks of a person who has no honour and little understanding of ultimate sacrifice.

[SASless]

can you also tell us why, once individuals are grievously wounded in the service of their country and in the furtherance of your policies, they are thrown on the scrap heap with little or nor compensation, following disgracefully expeditious medically discharged?

Our Veterans Administration (va.gov) is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but we do a very good job of assisting Veteran's who have been wounded or injured while on Active Service.

Our veteran's organizations, American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans all work with the VA to assist recently discharged Veterans in registering for, and gaining compensation and medical treatment.

Perhaps, you might borrow a page from our book on this...it was a long hard fight over here which unfortunately still goes on. It will require a lot of dedication and hard work by Veterans to bring the issue to the public and your MP's to the degree something changes for the good. It takes organization and active groups of Veterans to acheive success however.

Look back at the fights we had over PTSD, Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, and Rehab funding. War has some nasty after effects upon the survivors and they deserve longterm support and assistance from the government that sent them in harm's way.

[jstars2]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2006/05/26/wus26.jpg

Another fine f**k-up Stanley!!

[rafloo]

A Prime Minister is supposed to nurture one of its most valuable and appreciating assets, its armed forces. No he isn't. Thats not the role of the PM. Which PM has ever nutured the Armed Forces... ?

Balfour may have done a little bit but apart from him...nope. The PM isn't supposed to nuture the Armed Forces...he is supposed to send us off to war and conflict. Thats what we do, Thats what we are here for. Not for nuturing.

[highcirrus]

Hmmm… You might be missing the bigger picture here, rafloo. Sure Bliar is not going to start showing his wonderfully cuddly and fluffy “Nu Labour” care and compassion towards individual service members or units (he’s too gutless to come face-to-face, especially with the casualties of his messianic ventures). That’s not what I meant by nurture.

My words were meant to imply that Bliar (or any other PM) has a duty of care towards armed services manning, morale, equipment, infrastructure and continuity. He has consistently shown his view of the services as “on-tap”, “throw-away” commodities that do not need thought towards, or consideration of, their finest traditions or fighting efficiency and has, hence, consistently shirked this fundamental duty of care. Moreover, in these times of ever increasing international danger, he has shown no sense that the assets he controls are of rapidly appreciating value, being the only consistently reliable bulwark we have, against an almost daily terror threat growth.

Bliar’s sworn enemy, Brown, has an even more dismissive attitude towards the services and, if anything, as allocator of service funding for the past nine miserable years, is even more derelict in his duty than Bliar. The sooner this shower of liars and incompetents is out of office, the better for both the country and the services.

[Anotherpost75]

http://images.scotsman.com/2005/08/09/en09mikb.jpg
I've seen the future .... and it's brown!!

[FormerFlake]

As alway, all this has been covered by Jonathan Lynn 20 years ago.

"Things don't happen just because Prime Ministers are keen on them. Neville Chamberlain was keen on peace."

The reason for going to war?

"The problem of the Ministry of Defence is that in peace time the three armed forces have no one on whom to vent their warlike instincts except the cabinet or each other."

The reason no one stopped the war?

"In government, many people have the power to stop things happening but almost nobody has the power to make things happen. The system has the engine of a lawn mower and the brakes of a Rolls Royce."

The reason MPs always get it wrong:

"Being an MP is a vast subsidized ego-trip. It's a job that needs no qualifications, it has no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, and provides a warm room, a telephone and subsidized meals to a bunch of self-important windbags and busybodies who suddenly find people taking them seriously because they've go the letters 'MP' after the their name."

Make up your own mind on these:

"There was nothing wrong with appeasement. All that World War Two achieved after six years was to leave Eastern Europe under a Communist dictatorship instead of a Fascist dictatorship. That's what comes of not listening to the Foreign Office."

"Britain should always be on the side of law and justice, so long as we don't allow it to affect our foreign policy."

"Press statements are not delivered under oath."

"The Foreign Office aren't there to do things. They're there to explain why things can't be done."

"People have said a lot of unpleasant things about the Foreign Office, but no one has ever accused them of patriotism."

[jstars2]

http://www.vg.no/bilder/bildarkiv/1092817048.11488.jpg
Ok Tony, they’ve got your measure and it seems official:

Being an MP (and especially a PM) is a vast subsidized ego-trip. It's a job that needs no qualifications, it has no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, and provides a warm room, a telephone and subsidized meals to a bunch of self-important windbags and busybodies who suddenly find people taking them seriously because they've go the letters 'MP' after the their name.

[highcirrus]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/graphics/2006/06/02/ixd02big.jpg
Bliar to try the same mount?

[Tigs2]

What amazes me after reading all the posts (and agreeing with them!)is WHY did we vote him back in? :( Anybody, any party would have been better. WHY WHY WHY?? Its the biggest self hack in history.

[pr00ne]

Tigs2,

Simple really, more people disagreed with you than agreed with you! This board, and the serving and ex-serving folk on it are not indicative of the population of this country, you are a minority, and a very small minority.

Also, the fact that there is no decent or credible alternative is the more worrying factor. I am very firmly left of centre in my political views but I am NO fan of Blair, as a trawl of my posts will reveal. The fact that there IS no credible alternative is a huge condemmnation of the political sterility at large right now and very very sad.

[Tigs2]

Pr00ne

Alas, tis true, we are but numbers.

[ThomasT]

All those stupid guys who joined the armed forces to kill, (not defend UK as it is NOT threatened) will be Depleted Uraniumed as soon as tey arrive in Iraq. Bout a five year death sentence without reprieve. What you sowed, you shall reap.

[ThomasT]

And dont tell me about joining the forces to save UK from terrs. The Cambridge Evening News interviewed an injured survivor of the London blasts, who saw NO ONE at the blast location. The metal around the blast hole was bent UPWARDS. The policemean escorting him off, told hime to walk carefully round the jagged edges. It just happened that an Israeli company does the UG security and the cameras just happened to be OFF at blast time. Now they found bomb making stuf. What a load of BS to keep you cowering.

[Confucius]

Does the 'T' stand for 'Tit'?

[ThomasT]

This is the same BS as a skinny arab who couldnt solo a cessna 172 with 600 hours in his logbok, commandeering a boeing, on which he had no booking, with box cutters, flying down the usa/canada corridor were norad and faa have no coverage, KNOWING he would not be intercepted, finding the fiveagon, doing a 280 degree descending turn at 500 mph, selecting the naval intel section, skimming across the lawn at 2 feet, exploding the 500 kilo explosives we always carry in the nose cone, taking the whole ship through a ten foot hole without marking from engines or tail on the building, vapourising all the part numbers on every component, still leaving behind 100 plus DNAs for evidence,which are destroyed normally at 100 degrees etc etc ad nauseum.

[ThomasT]

Confucius him say.. truth very upsetting, better stay with our conspiracy theories about terrs. everywhere, as they make us scared. We join up now fight them. Anybody no like our ideals must be tit. Confucius him say ''round asnd round goes the big wheel.' He right. He bomb civilians, the DU he dp bomb his lungs.

[ratty1]

This is the same BS as a skinny arab who couldnt solo a cessna 172 with 600 hours in his logbok, commandeering a boeing, on which he had no booking, with box cutters, flying down the usa/canada corridor were norad and faa have no coverage, KNOWING he would not be intercepted, finding the fiveagon, doing a 280 degree descending turn at 500 mph, selecting the naval intel section, skimming across the lawn at 2 feet, exploding the 500 kilo explosives we always carry in the nose cone, taking the whole ship through a ten foot hole withpout marking from engines or tail on the building, vapourising all the part numbers on every component, still leaving behiong 100 plus DNAs for evidence,which are destroyed normally at 199 dereess etc etc ad nauseum.
Are you lost? Its just that you wrote the exactly the same thing in the private flying threads about flying into the sea.:uhoh:

>>>>>>Here<<<<<<<< (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=227440&page=3)

[ThomasT]

Nah, not lost, just needs to be inserted here. It was also relevant at the Kennedy crash into-the sea post as that was an execution from the same demented bunch who gave you nine one one, and madrid and london-.and Iraq, which is going well., as Iraq is to keep oil high, build big bases near Iran, to subdivide the country into 3, and to stop them trading oil in euros.

[ratty1]

Just wandering why you wrote it twice in two different threads?:confused:

[Roadster280]

OK Thomas, I'll bite. I'm in a bad mood today anyway, so what the hell.

All those people who joined the forces (certainly UK, US, all non-conscripting NATO countries) did so in order to defend democracy. Their right to freedom. That's what they signed up for, voluntarily. They may have had personal agendas (learn to fly/drive/fix things/cook(!)/stack blankets), but they all signed up for the overriding prinicple of defence.

And yes, some people probably did join with bloodlust in mind. But I'll guarantee you that either they changed their mind by the end of training, or didnt make the end of training.

I see you live in Vienna. Bit of a mixed bag of history there. Everything from Imperialism through Nazism, Communist uprisings, neutrality to democracy.

Good luck on here trying to attack our ethos anyway. You'll need it.

[Roadster280]

While writing my post, I note there's been several others.

In 1999 I visited NYC. Two beautiful gleaming silver towers dominating the skyline.

In 2002, I revisited. Towers not there any more.

In Jan 2006 I visited again, and happened past the site, just a big hole in the ground.

I'm afraid the conspiracy theory does not hold water for me.

My eyes do not lie.

[ThomasT]

I lived here only a few years, roadster, but I am from Kenya and Hong Kong, Brit citizen, chew on that one... Seems most on this forum only digest b(BS)c or sewerNN. Try rense.com for a different view of freedom democracy etc. re your views on these arabs, go and read rense and then come back in a week. You may find the conspiuracy theory is the official version. And why havent you challenged a single point on my essay re the fivagon boeing??? All based on photographic, eyewitness, and radar data...and why does the FBI refuse to hand over the remaining 84 security tapes in their possession??

[Wyler]

Thomas. I was confused about your attitude for a while and then I saw that you class UFO's and alternative medicine as interests. Stop smoking the dog pooh and take off the tin foil hat when the sun is shining. After a day or two you will feel a lot better, honest.

[ThomasT]

Go to theyfly.com wyler and get your head out o the sand. As for alternative medicine, please go ahead with your statins, low cholesterol diet, and dont supplement, it all in the food you know. Microwave cooking, teflon, aspartame, msg, soy, canola are all goof or you. Yeah.. Live long and prosper!!

[ratty1]

Calm down Thomas you live in the peacful city of Vienna, Switzerland. You should just chill man.

[ThomasT]

Vienna is in Botswana not Switzerland. Who toched you geography like?

[ratty1]

Who toched you geography like?

What on earth does that mean?

[Almost_done]

Go to theyfly.com wyler and get your head out o the sand. As for alternative medicine, please go ahead with your statins, low cholesterol diet, and dont supplement, it all in the food you know. Microwave cooking, teflon, aspartame, msg, soy, canola are all goof or you. Yeah.. Live long and prosper!!

Well, I was curious so I had a look at 'Theyfly.com'. i know I shouldn't.

Best 2 min of laughter today, fantastic, it is brilliant, ever get stressed out go there and your day will be brightened.
:D

Blimey they actually believe the drivel. Just goes to show that technology can be wasted. :ugh:

[Brian Abraham]

theyfly.com :eek: Democracy has got a lot to answer for. :p

[Confucius]

...theyfly.com...

Proof positive that 'Care in the Community' was the Conservative's worst policy.

[mlc]

The Martian spaceship designers are not very original are they. Why do these super advanced beings always end up designing ships that look like two dinner plates stuck together.

Particularly like this extremely convincing one!!

http://www.theyfly.com/photos/images/f0829.jpg

[ThomasT]

MLC thats a Dahl ship from a parallel universe. go to enterprisemisson.com for martian stories. The ship fotographed by meier using an olympus film camera in the early eighties was verified by JPL as being a genuine shot. It moves thru 500 light years in a milisecond. Noww, tell me not one guy on this forum has had a UFO sighting. I suppose my two sightings were caused by hallucinating of the planet venus or swamp gas, one of which was a formation of 5 halucinatory ships, formating below us over France, at maybe 20,000' on a London to Rome flight, Super VC10, 1972, And why< did we carry, and fill out the UFO report forms, from our flight bag? Oh yes, for halucinatory martian saucers, no doubt.

[ThomasT]

If you want more laughs wylie wyler, go to enterprisemission.com for more jokes, as taken by the moon landed yanks with their hasselblad cameras, and the previous civilizations on Mars that nasa forgot to airbrush out.

[ThomasT]

Ratty, I mean, like, well who totched you geograffi, we all noe that Vienna iz in Botswana not Switzerland. Yorr teecha musta hav bin quite dim, like.

[nigegilb]

who totched u inglissh

[mlc]

MLC thats a Dahl ship from a parallel universe. go to enterprisemisson.com for martian stories. The ship fotographed by meier using an olympus film camera in the early eighties was verified by JPL as being a genuine shot. It moves thru 500 light years in a milisecond. Noww, tell me not one guy on this forum has had a UFO sighting. I suppose my two sightings were caused by hallucinating of the planet venus or swamp gas, one of which was a formation of 5 halucinatory ships, formating below us over France, at maybe 20,000' on a London to Rome flight, Super VC10, 1972, And why< did we carry, and fill out the UFO report forms, from our flight bag? Oh yes, for halucinatory martian saucers, no doubt.

If you really were an airline pilot...I'm glad you've retired!

Does the term...wibble...mean anything to you!

[Confucius]

This has to be a wind up from a Wing Commander at waddo?

Doesn't it?

[ratty1]

Ratty, I mean, like, well who totched you geograffi, we all noe that Vienna iz in Botswana not Switzerland. Yorr teecha musta hav bin quite dim, like.
Oh now I see. You are trying to type like a Geordie ...........:cool:

[jstars2]

Thomas T

You earlier wrote

And why havent you challenged a single point on my essay re the fivagon boeing??? All based on photographic, eyewitness, and radar data...and why does the FBI refuse to hand over the remaining 84 security tapes in their possession??

You would presumably also subscribe to the theory, popular in the Middle East, that the WTC attack was organised by world Jewish forces, to smear the good name of Islam, and that personnel of the Jewish race were warned-off attending work at the WTC on the fateful day of 9 September 2001, so as to avoid casualties amongst the chosen?

[Anotherpost75]

Perhaps back on thread now?

It's time Blair supported our Forces

Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph, 08/06/2006

Tony Blair has been loyally served by Britain's Armed Forces during his nine-year tenure as Prime Minister. But it is unlikely that many members of the Armed Forces would say the same today about the Blair Government.

In Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq, soldiers, sailors and airmen have acquitted themselves with distinction in difficult circumstances, and in so doing have enabled Mr Blair to establish his credentials as a world statesman.

Of all the missions undertaken by British troops since 1997, the task of overthrowing Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq in the spring of 2003 was the most challenging and controversial.

Whatever private reservations senior officers entertained about the wisdom and necessity of the war, they nevertheless conducted a brilliant military campaign that succeeded in achieving all its stated objectives within the space of just three weeks.

Having served their country with courage, the least our servicemen and women might have expected in return was the support, if not the gratitude, of the Government. In fact, the opposite has proved to be the case.

Instead of rewarding the Armed Forces for their efforts, the Labour Government - acting on the instructions of its pacifist-minded Chancellor, Gordon Brown - has seen Britain's cherished regimental structure torn asunder.

Spending has been reduced to such a level that the Army is unable even to provide troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan with sufficient protection against the sophisticated roadside bombs being used to kill and maim them by Islamic militants.

But, arguably, the Government's most egregious act of betrayal has been its eagerness to prosecute British soldiers for war crimes on what appear to be the flimsiest of pretexts.

The collapse this week of yet another high-profile court martial, in which three soldiers were cleared of murdering a 15-year-old Iraqi looter, has yet again highlighted the Government's readiness to make an example of servicemen even when all the evidence suggests that they were simply carrying out their duties in the most challenging of circumstances.

John Reid, the former defence secretary, argued that prosecutions such as these were necessary "to uphold the integrity of the Army", while Robin Cook declared that the prosecution of British troops was ultimately for their own good.

The fact that Dr Reid, a Blair loyalist, and the late Mr Cook, who was latterly a prominent Blair antagonist, held similar views illustrates just how deeply the culture of political correctness is embedded in New Labour.

Much of this mindset derives from Mr Blair himself, who has made much of the need to bring a moral dimension to resolving international conflicts, and has insisted that this holier-than-thou approach be applied to the conduct of Britain's Armed Forces even when deployed on foreign battlefields.

Consequently, before the invasion of Iraq had even begun, the Royal Military Police were given strict instructions that any personnel acting outside the rules of engagement would be held to account, and that any incident involving the shooting of an Iraqi or alleged abuse of Iraqi citizens would be thoroughly investigated.

Since the end of hostilities, the Army's Special Investigations Branch has looked into upwards of 200 cases of alleged unlawful behaviour by soldiers in Iraq, most of them relating to the fire fights that erupt with increasing frequency with local militia and insurgent groups.

While no one - least of all senior commanders - should ignore those instances in which there is clear evidence that a war crime has been committed, the problem facing investigating officers is that any alleged offence committed in combat is by definition a very different proposition to one committed in civilian life.

Take the circumstances surrounding the prosecution of the three guardsmen acquitted this week. They were struggling to bring under control the widespread looting that erupted throughout Iraq in the immediate aftermath of Saddam's overthrow.

The British Army's eventual success in pacifying the southern sector around Basra meant that, for a long period after the war, they enjoyed good relations with the local community. This was achieved despite the fact that the authorities in London - as the court martial embarrassingly revealed - were incapable of providing clear guidance on how to deal with the looters.

The rules of engagement set to prosecute the war were deemed wholly inadequate for winning the peace. Left to their own devices, British commanders devised the unorthodox tactic of "wetting" suspected looters - forcing them into ditches and dykes filled with effluent - which was aimed at persuading them to desist from their looting activities. The case surrounding the three acquitted guardsmen related to 15-year-old Ahmed Jabar Khateem, who drowned after being forced into the Shatt al-Arab canal.

It could be argued that the adoption of such a crude tactic would have been unnecessary had political correctness not prevented commanding officers from applying the traditional Army method for dealing with civil disobedience, in which for generations officers have been taught to give the order: "Disperse, or we shoot."

What most service personnel find particularly galling is that, rather than being commended for showing initiative in resolving a potentially catastrophic situation for the military in southern Iraq, the Government appeared more focused on making an example of the three soldiers held responsible for Khateem's death.

But then, anyone serving on the front line in the so-called war on terror is well aware that safeguarding human rights and respecting the sensibilities of ethnic groups can often merit the same priority as preventing suicide attacks on the London Underground, as the police responsible for conducting last week's raid on a suspected terror cell in Forest Gate have discovered.

There is a growing body of evidence that last year's London bombings could have been avoided if MI5 had properly investigated Mohammed Sidique Khan, the suicide bombers' ringleader.

On that basis, the Metropolitan Police would have been failing in its duty had it not acted on intelligence passed to it by MI5 that the house in Forest Gate was being used to prepare a cyanide attack on central London.

After local Muslim community leaders protested vociferously about the raids, Mr Blair made a public declaration in support of the police tactics. There are many in the Armed Forces who yearn for the day that they receive similar backing from Whitehall.

• Con Coughlin is the author of 'American Ally: Tony Blair and the War on Terror'

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That photo linked by Post #49 has certainly got me convinced, Thomas, even though it does bear an uncanny resemblance to the showerhead in my bathroom.

[Pontius Navigator]

The Martian spaceship designers are not very original are they. Why do these super advanced beings always end up designing ships that look like two dinner plates stuck together.

Particularly like this extremely convincing one!!

http://www.theyfly.com/photos/images/f0829.jpg

We had one of these in a shower in an old hotel in Yugoslavia.