I do not think that I am the only one that has noticed that in the majority of threads all of the military posters (and some civilian and ex military) comment in the lack of strategic thinking or execution in the SDSR.
There has also been certain amount of complication created by some leading politicians, HMG departments and media where the true nature of the SDSR cuts and potential future risks to the UK and British Nationals is being lost by careful spin to lose the true impact in other headlines, including cuts to NHS, Welfare and MoD procurement mismanagement.
Taking it from this esoteric viewpoint to a personal topical one, I was out at my local near a secret Hampshire airbase yesterday evening, with people that I regularly socialise with and even though just a routine green wokka mate they were genuinely shocked to see me. The locals consisted of city types, ex servicemen, farmers and a few local business owners (fair cross section of society, certainly for my neck of the woods).
This element of Middle England were genuinely expecting HMG and the MoD to have visible and credible actions to rescue those stuck in Libya. All of them had images of a Falklands style task force leaving harbour with decks full of helicopters ready to position itself should the civilian charter option not work. They were all expecting Hercs to pre-position to Malta with defence parties to be ready at a drop of a hat to extract British Nationals (and in a force for good, anyone else that wanted to leave the country).
I am loyal to the end, and did not rise to this obvious misalignment of public expectations and I am sure that those that need to are considering many options. But, I cannot escape from the essential fact that however broke we are and whatever the National Security Council believe is going to threaten UK in the future, that the current SDSR is placing this country at risk and that the British people have absolutely no idea on what these cuts mean to them.
Even the much lauded Afghan pull out will not deliver the spectrum, reaction and reach of capabilities that the UK once had. It appears that RWS is truly dead and the NAO Battlefield Helicopter lift requirement/shortfall is to be ignored, a UK amphibious capability is either being cut completely or reduced to a phoney level and of course the axing of Harriers, Nimrod/MPA and carriers with no method of rapidly filling the capability gap.
No one (not even the best brains in RUSI or the FCO) would have envisaged this wave of Middle Eastern 'revolution' and yet everyone appears to be lulling themselves into a belief of 'capability holidays', 'seedcorning capabilities' and 'accepting capability gaps'.
I acknowledge that we are broke, and of course the MoD Procurement process needs to get sorted (and unusually there has been much sense on the Dr Fox Spending thread on procurement and project management), but as someone that was having a drink with a snap shot of British society then the HMG have got it's work cut out in aligning the expectations of the British public as they are willing to swallow the GOvt's and media's spin on everyone sharing the pain with cuts, but they are certainly unaware of the level of cuts and what it means to their defence and the defence of those in shipping lanes or countries overseas.
Hopefully Libya will be sorted by civilian charters and the NEO thread turns out to be a load of hot air, but what will be next (natural disaster, more NEO, energy/food security or war fighting - nothing is inconceivable in today's uncertain environment) and what will the British public expect it's Govt and Military to do on it's behalf?
I believe that there is a widening chasm of what the British public expect and want from it's military and what current Government are prepared to fund, and sadly HMG are not being honest with the British public in re-aligning those expectations by informing them of the true consequences and reduction in capabilities that are as a result of the current (and projected) cuts.
Just a thought after a night in the local pub
