SASless,
Sorry mate - the 'policy' of aggressive patrolling and fully layered defences was in place - but it is a big base with a huge perimeter. When you look at the 1,000s of square kms around the base that need to be dominated, we could pour wing after wing of FP troops into theatre and still have had the same result. I am reminded of the phrase that we have to get lucky every time, the enemy only once.
I'm confident that appropriate requests for increases in force concentration were made, but these were not upheld - the guys on the ground have to live with the risk factors which are present, the grown ups higher in the food chain have to live with their conscience if things go wrong on their shift. Sadly, the guys in the field are easily identified, the grey men in the out of theater command chain (including the civil servants and NATO civilian accounting officers) can slope off into the shadows when the chips are down. Life was ever such.
As for the smoke and mirrors diversion about a flight line fence, a fence is just a delineating feature. Unless it is covered by observation and fire, an obstacle isn't an obstacle - surely something taught at 'every Infantry training or physical security school'?
HD