The Chinook is the only other UK platform that can do what the Merlins have been doing in Iraq BUT they could not do it so quietly, they could not do it with the same availability, they could not do it without being comprehensively dicked from take off to landing, and they are more prone to nastiness in brown out.
And many users now swear by the Merlin.
Moreover, if you think that the Chinook isn't FAR LOUDER than Merlin, with a unique acoustic signature that is more directional, then you've been flying them much too long, or you've never heard the difference between the noise and 'thump' you experience on the ground when one flies over at a distance at which you wouldn't even hear a Merlin.
I may be a "snivelling armchair napoleon" and I certainly am not a "rotary mate with recent desert experience", but I don't need to be one to spot your exaggerated and arrogant boasting and ignorant dismissal of an aircraft that's proving to be as useful as your own.