ORAC, the "D-Day - 1950s War" comparison is not particularly accurate. A more pertinent comparison would have been relatively minor actions in the Mediterranean theatre versus D-Day. Though the actions in Afghanistan and Iraq are, to all intents and purposes, war, they are low-tech wars fought against low-tech adversaries. Although this may be the future of war-fighting for the forseeable future, the threat of a major, high-tech, war, though remote, still exists. Surely the Armed Forces should be trained and equipped to fight both forms of war. If we continue to man to the current task, we will end up with an armed gendarmarie.