Civvie,
I have to hand it to you - you really have mastered the art of dentopedology (the art of putting one's foot in one's mouth).
I won't rehash the apposite comments of other Ppruners more qualified to remark on this matter. All I will remark is that the government (and, for that matter their predecessors) keep remarking that our armed services are the finest in the world. I happen to agree with that, not least since I work with members of all the services 0830-1730 Monday to Friday at the PLC (OK, perhaps 1200 on Fridays...). What puzzles me is why, if the government believes this, they then treat said finest armed forces like Sh-one-t. Treating finest roses with said substance may work, but we aren't dealing with gardening.
By the by, also thanks to this goverment, we don't have any bl00dy ships or Doctors - ever heard of Defence Medical Services trying to manage with something like 10% (I forget the figure) of the required manpower?
Media war is a myth - at its basest level, war is about killing people. It is nasty, brutal and not necessarily short (with apologies to Hobbes). Whether we send any or all of our services into a war zone, every single person deployed faces the risks. That,That is what fighting means. It is hard. It is nasty. It is never easy. It is, though, easy to forget this if you're not the one being shot at/bombed/gassed/bombarded. Sorry, but it's at best insulting and at worst glibly stupid to suggest that any war is going to be easy, even if we do happen to be fighting it with the biggest kid on the block.
Completely changing tack - crossing picket lines is an interesting one, and always leads to a bit of debate when CMR crops up. The problem, I think, is that unlike Foot & Mouth type scenarios, crossing a picket line is an inherently politicised activity, and UK governments of all colours have been a tad reluctant to get the forces involved in overtly political activity since about the time of the Levellers and the Putney Debates... The MACP/MACC questions are interesting ones. As for ROE, surely they'd be based on necessary force? I.e, if fireman sam attacks you with one of his natty baseball caps, bayoneting him might be viewed as a little harsh... Major (now Major-General at least) John Kizeley, a Coy Cdr in Scots Guards bayoneted at least 2 Argentineans during the battle for Tumbledown by the by. 'Pretty sharp for a company commander' as his Btn cdr put it several years later.
[edited to evade censorship of mild expletive]