"Armed forces 'face tinpot future'" says Admiral Sir Alan West

[airborne_artist]

"Britain's armed forces could be reduced to a "tinpot gendarmerie" because of a lack of investment, the former head of the Royal Navy head has warned.

Admiral Sir Alan West said the Ministry of Defence was behaving "like these tinpot countries" that do not put money into major equipment programmes. "

Full article on BBCi (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6207267.stm)

[MReyn24050]

"Sir Alan is the latest senior military figure to speak out about issues affecting the armed forces. Head of the Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt, and his predecessor, General Sir Mike Jackson, have also voiced concerns."
At least General Sir Richard Dannett had the guts to voice his concerns in public whilst still a serving officer and not wait until the pension was in the bank.

[adrian mole]

As soon as this so called Government announced that it will build two Super Carriers I prophesied that it will not happen and I still believe that. I'm retired now but despair more and more with the plight of the poor guys and gals still serving. I get an awful feeling that we are undergoing our own 'Vietnam War' scenario where the British Public are not aware that we are fighting two wars at the moment or really don't give a hoot! Isn't it time we Pruners started giving our MPs a hard time and at least started highlighting the problem? A useful thread is www.parliament.uk/directories/hciolists/alms.cfm - go for it!

[WE Branch Fanatic]

Admiral West did speak out whilst still in office, as a quick Google search should reveal. Unfortunately, the media chose not to pay attention....

This (http://www.warshipsifr.com/theFirstSeaLord.html) was one example, and this (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/13/navy13.xml) is another. The second one was a year before he left office. I seem to remember him saying similar things back as for a early 2003.

[Impiger]

The media are indeed a fickle lot - reporting what they think is eye catching at the time. In a previous existence I was a speech writer for the then CDS. As he approached retirement many print journos started commenting how the CDS was becoming more outspoken as his end-date loomed. At a press lunch I pointed out that he was saying the same things he had been saying for the last 2 years (I knew, I'd been writing it - albeit under close direction) but the journos were looking for a new twist to spin the story up into something it wasn't.

[Pontius Navigator]

Before GW II it was all to be over by Christmas. Sir Alan said it would last a lot longer. This was not the approved US message and Geoff Hoon was best not pleased.

In semantical terms West was wrong, the war fighting was over in weeks. OTOH he was less wrong when he said it would not be over by Christmas; maybe he knew it would drag on as it has but realised this was far too unpalatable to the political masters and possibly bad for the morale of the troops too.

Now though any prediction of 'home by . . . ' or troop withdrawals is ignored by the men on the ground. Even if the politicians believe (hope) that the end is in sight they have yet to convince anyone else.