PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - New Chief of Pointy Dangerous Things told to keep his nose out......
Old 31st Aug 2009, 08:46
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anita gofradump
 
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Bandwagon????

From Wikipedia...

Rifkind was appointed Secretary of State for Defence after the 1992 General Election.Although he had no military background he was a firm believer in strong defence and armed forces with a global capability. One of his early decisions was to reverse the proposed disbandment of the Cheshire and Staffordshire Regiment and the Royal Scots. In 1994 he was faced with Treasury demands for major cuts in the Defence budget. In order to protect the fighting capability of the armed forces he negotiated a settlement with the Treasury whereby he would deliver savings greater than they were demanding but that he would be allowed to keep the additional savings and use them for the purchase of new military equipment for each of the three Services. He had already won the support of the Chiefs of Staff for this approach which provided an incentive for their cooperation in making the necessary economies.The outcome was the Front Line First Report which was well-received both in Parliament and in the Armed Forces. However, some of its proposals, particularly in regard to defence medical services were, in later years, subjected to heavy criticism. With some of the additional savings that had been found Rifkind was able to secure the agreement of the United States to British purchase of Cruise missiles. The United Kingdom was, at that time, the only country to which the Americans were willing to sell Cruise missiles. Rifkind also reformed the Reserve Forces and initiated the policy review which led to the TA and other Reservists being able to be used in operations abroad without the need for full mobilisation of the whole Territorial Army as had been needed in the past. One of the most difficult problems that Rifkind dealt with as Defence Secretary was British involvement in the Bosnian war in former Yugoslavia. Like John Major and the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, Rifkind was opposed to military intervention by Britain and the international community as combatants in that conflict. However, he supported the use of British troops and those from other countries to protect humanitarian food convoys that were protecting hundreds of thousands of civilians.Rifkind was a strong and vocal opponent of the American proposal for "lift and strike" which would have ended the UN Arms Embargo and subjected the Bosnian Serbs to Nato bombing from the air. Rifkind agreed with the UN and European view that such bombing would be incompatible with a UN mission on the ground and would necessitate the ending of that mission. Rifkind expressed these views publicly in Washington as well as in London. Although the United States was increasingly frustrated and concerned at this impasse it did not do lasting damage to US-British relations as evidenced by the American willingness to sell Cruise Missiles to the United Kingdom.
What we have seen is typical of the average pprune user-bandwagon. People should be more inclined to look into the subject and make their own minds up, rather than just accept the point of view being put to them.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind is a supporter of the outgoing CGS but is uncomfortable with the idea of him adopting a political approach, using the media to make himself heard when the normally accepted channels were not getting his point across (because the penny-pinching government made his job impossible?).

Let's hope the new guard can make use of the good work done by the outgoing CGS. Loyalty is always a two-way street.
anita gofradump is offline