Brandnew,
much as I understand (and to a degree sympathise) with where you are coming from, perhaps you should direct your vitriol at the politicians of our current government rather than at the RAF. The government's disasterous approach to funding the military has left the RAF in a very difficult place, where constant salami slicing of budgets over the last decade or so (particularly within the DE&S project teams) has left many of our front line capabilities supported by a shoestring, with spares support cut to an absolute minimum. When you are running old, knackered aircraft that break frequently (e.g. VC10, Tristar, Herc K, GR4, Nimrod MR2), with a very limited pool of spares, sometimes they are going to disappoint. Old aeroplanes are a nightmare to keep servicable, particularly when your fleet size is small.
As for the Merlin force, bearing in mind they have just come back from a long and difficult spell in Iraq; is it therefore wrong that they should go somewhere civilised to train for a little while, rather than somewhere in Africa?
I can't help feeling that at times such as these we should be uniting against the common enemies; i.e. the taleban on one hand and our idiot politicians on the other. Inter-service sniping and bickering really doesn't help anyone.