General Chat

Now after that little load of twaddle,I understand the true meaning of" Pip. Squeaks"Regarding Leave trips back home,we went out did a job then came back to be on call for the next one,you have,nt got a clue what you,re talking about not the Real Army anyway.

I lived worked and fought for more than ten years in the middle east.
As a civilian I have also worked in Malaysia/Singapore, USA, Russia and all over Europe as well as bits of the map most people would have to google for.

Life is much harder as a civilian. No brothers in arms. No leave trips back home.
Bed and board down to yourself.
Transport down to yourself.
School fees down to yourself.
You need to understand read and write scribble.
You need to make friends with the locals, not something the British Army is very good at doing - Crater, Oman, Batang Kali, Dhofar, Basra .....

Nobody to call for help when the Israeli army are beating in the door with the butt of their Uzzis.

I can hardly be unaware that all NCOs consider army officers a total waste of space but that is their opinion. I have my own opinions about color sgts but will refrain from frightening the horses here.

I for one am glad that a big chunk of the Army is being pensioned off and it will have the chance to adopt a a new way of thinking some new ways of doing things.

It is not the role of the Army in a modern democratic state to beat the shit out of the locals. This has been very much the objective of British counter insurgency operations 1946 - 2013 such as in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am glad that you are proud of your part in it.

The only result has been a terrible loss of life, waste of incredible sums of money and undying hatred from the people we went to "save".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZBT8UHJgts

Ho hum.

Well then Mine Capitan or "Ruperts" as we used to call them." Egypt, Oman, Cyprus, Aden, Aqaba, Borneo,Malasia and various other places, Would that be deemed to have done it?Plus a Couple of DSMs. Didn,t need three pips,just three stripes and a crown.**M**.

But I have been there and done this and that, worn my 3 pips.
Manui Dat Cognitio Vires

Nobody is considering British forces on the ground in Syria or even sending modern weapons which could so easily end up with the bad boys. 30 year old kit from is cheap and will do the job without creating too much downside risk.

This government is a curate's egg, good in parts. One of the good parts is Hammond the defense secretary who is shoving reluctant armed forces into a sensible and affordable force for modern times.

Since long long ago it has never been British policy to maintain a large standing army at home in peacetime. It can get out of hand.

After the campaigns of Marlborough, Wellington and Douglas Haig the army was greatly reduced in size in short order. The big exception was the Cold War.

Highly mobile force projection using the new aircraft carriers, STOL aircraft and helicopters not needing hardened land airbases makes abundant sense. While the army is getting slimmed down it will also be far more mobile and flexible. The RN and RAF are being considerably beefed up.

The recent France /UK operations in Mali & Libya or the support of the civil power in Sierra Leone is a good example of the most probable sort of operations our armed forces will be facing. In all of them modern STOL aircraft carriers would have been very useful.

Another plus of the new carriers is that they can also operate as civil relief after a disaster with medical facilities and helicopters.

The effective use of military power is not from actual deployment but from the threat of the same.
(The Art of War)

Chris,For the Navy read "Pedolas" the Paras" Kites" The RAF. Gliders and the tankies "Tandems fitted with catapults". Before sending Arms to Syria,remember what happened when we helped to arm the" Mujahadeen" in Afghanistan against the Russians, Our and other troops are fighting against them now,and they,re possibly using some of the weapons supplied by us.To me all this trouble in the Middle east is yet another attempt at a take over by Islamism as they did previously, prior to the Crusades.Rollo, not all of us are "Trite and Naive" as you seem to think, a lot of us have been there and done it,not just read and wrote about it.**M**.

What forces have we got now to run the risk of entering into any action?

Desert Rats are losing their tanks, Paratroopers are losing their parachutes and the Navy has lost/losing ships.

It is silly to call any policy that supports the rebels "war mongering" as by any standards the war is well and truly going on.

The sooner the war ends the sooner people stop being killed - an obvious point but one often avoided. A war is not over just because one side gives up and allows large numbers of people to be murdered.

The UK cannot "defy" any EU foreign policy agreement as they have no legal force ( unlike say, NATO ). The UK can - and does - take foreign policy decisions according to whatever serves its needs for foreign policy as do other major states, especially Germany and France. Sometimes these needs can be better met by working with our partners as is the case with sanctions against Iran, but not always.

Assad and his Ba'ath regime are going to lose the war, please do not be under any illusions about that.

There will not be a political settlement which includes Assad.. The Ba'ath party both in Syria and Iraq has always settled its arguments in the only way it knows, torture and death. If they go down fighting so be it ...

UKGov main responsibility is to UK people.

Iran has already established de facto control over the eastern Mediterranean shore in Gaza and the Lebanon through its support of Hezbollah and other jihadist groups.

It is these Jihadist groups who right now are being armed with weapons from ex-Yugoslavia paid for by Al-Qatar and Saudi A.. It is these groups who are most effective in carrying the fight to Assad. The moderate pro-western Syria coalition is being sidelined, over 1 million people are refugees.

Unless the moderate groups are beefed up the country will come under the control of jihadist fundamentalist armed militia. How on earth anybody can think that Syria and the Lebanon under the control of al-Qu'idah is an acceptable near future is beyond comprehension. The idea that defending Britain beings and ends at Dover is both trite and naive.

It is unlikely that Russia will be very happy at the loss of its naval base at Latakia. The Russians have been steadily supplying arms to the regime, funding it and upgrading the air defences regardless.

Germany has close political and commercial relationships with Russia and thus the current EU ban serves both well. ( remember Germany's position on another Russian client, Libya ? ). Right now the two countries are building a large gas pipeline under the Baltic so that Russia can reliably supply Germany with gas while terrorising eastern Europe with fuel cuts in winter. Great ally then.

The Ba'athists know the game is up. The regime is shipping assets and family out of the state in a panic, mostly to Cyprus. They have an idea of setting up an Alawite mini state around Latakia supported by Russia. If that came to pass then any new Syrian regime could find itself up against Russian arms. That could put France and the UK in a difficult spot.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Well said.

Keep out of it ~ the mess there will go on for years.

:-(

I do so agree with you ,

Britain is prepared to defy a European arms embargo to supply lethal weapons to rebel fighters in Syria, David Cameron said yesterday. In a sign of the UK’s growing willingness to wade into the spiralling conflict, the Prime Minister said that Britain would be prepared to go it alone if necessary to help the opposition.

This kind of political posturing is dangerous, another word to describe it is "warmongering." :-|

Too often such posturing has turned into reality and we have ended up being drawn into conflicts that we should have never got involved in :-(

This country in the past may well have "ruled the waves" but this is no longer the case. We are members of the UN and NATO, as such we should abide by their decisions.

As much as I am appalled by the situation in Syria, we should not go it alone - so tread carefully Mr Cameron as we do not want to be involved in another futile war :-|