Back to topic
There was something about defence on the BBC news tonight. Missed the first few minutes of this. Also it was on Newsnight. I spent several minutes listening to some silly woman from an academic group saying we should funnel money away from the Armed Forces towards do gooders telling people to behave -
"Please Mr Hitler, come and join us around the camp fire and promise you'll behave...."
The talk of reducing the surface fleet flies in the face of the statement by the First Sea Lord that the Navy does not have enough ships. Talk of scrapping "older ships", something which it might well be claimed has already been done, might indicate in a reduction in the number of Type 42 destroyers. Apart from increasing the overstretch of the fleet, it would mean naval task groups would virtually no defence, apart from short range weapons, against air attack. It would also mean that the reasoning used to justify scrapping the Sea Harrier is completely false.
However, it seems likely that things are being deliberating leaked so that when the real decisions come out they do not seem so bad, particularly if it is done on a drip by drip basis.
Recently, Geoff Hoon was being awkward.. he said measuring the capability of our armed forces by the number of units will no longer be significant.
Really? How exactly does one undertake things like peacekeeping without troops?
Consider the following statement from the either CINCFLEET or the Second Sea Lord (sorry, can't remember which)...
Using technology to get rid of the fog or war and confusion on the battlefield is all well and good - but it will not replace someone simply being there.
So there we have it. Who should the public and parliamentarians believe? Senior officers, or the Ministers?
As for the Treasury, in 1940 they wanted to surrender to the Nazis to save money. That nihlistic penny pinching attitude still exists.
To go back to the original theme of this thread, the question is how do those of us who care/worry about defence go about getting the public on side?
As the issue of tuition fees shows, opposition by the public AND in parliament can make the Government reconsider things...