Having just read this forum from top to toe I can say I'm flabbergasted. Some excellent pieces of clear and logical debate....wow! Having just been to one of the poorest nations in the world and 'supported' the UN there I can honestly say that there IS still a need for us to participate in Global crises. The UN troops in SL were apalling; poorly organised and shoddily led. The Troops involved from UK sorted a huge mess out (again) and hopefully put things in place to stop the wheels falling off the peace process (again). I wholeheartedly agree with Jackinoko when he says that our budgets need to be better spent; NMS did nothing but cloud the issues on how and where money could be properly used. 8 yrs ago at a Green and Lush RAF Station where it rained alot, some £3000 was left over in the IT budget....if they didn't spend it they stood to lose it the next FY, so they blew it on loads of extra 386's which stood around and gathered dust...no-one could use them coz they could't afford the software licences to put stuff on them. Great use of OUR money eh? I also agree with wholigan 2 in that if someone in authority stood up to the way our Armed forces are being constantly denuded, they would have the wholehearted support and admiration of those of us at the coal face. I am loyal to the service in which I serve, have been for 12 yrs now, but doing what we have been doing for so long can make one a touch cynical.
A Mate of mine told me a good analogy about how the hierarchy of any organisation could best be described.
Picture a tree...full of monkeys....the important monkeys at the top and the also rans at the bottom.....the monkeys at the top of the tree look down and all they see is faces looking back up at them....those at the bottom look up and all they see is a bunch of arseholes! Harsh...but....