Comment in the Telegraph
"But of even more concern, believe several former defence chiefs, is that too many of the MOD's civil servants are not reflecting the best interests of the Armed Forces in their advice to ministers. Their eyes and ears are more attuned to the demands from across Whitehall, in the Treasury than to the needs of troops on operations in distant countries of which they know little."
Cheque book journalism would continue via other routes - you can't ban such a practice.
What you can do is:
a) reduce the military cock-ups by planning, developing proper SOPs, and spending time and money on acquiring the right kit for the task:
eg: "The Deputy Chief of Defence Staff (Commitments), Vice-Admiral Charles Style, the MOD officer directly responsible for issuing the operational directives to the forces through the PJHQ, said on television last week that it was because they had conducted so many boardings recently without incident."
and b) join-up the thinking - this one was coming from the time the hostages were taken. Were they planning for their release - were they
ck.