I am neither an original nor an analytical thinker - waddya mean you knew already?! However, I do try to keep up with the broad sweep of affairs and as a result, obviously, I begin to come to tentative conclusions. Occasionally, because frequently I am wrong, these are confirmed and as I am by nature something of a gloomy cynic I can tell you that it is not comfortable having one's own worst fears confirmed. And all of that brings me to the sorry state of the British army. I should make clear instantly that none of my remarks are aimed at what I would call 'the Tom level', that is, the rifle sections, platoons, their NCOs and their junior officers. They, as always, put up with the 'muck 'n' bullets' and just get on with the job to the best of their courageous and determined abilities. It is as one goes higher, and yet higher still, in the chain of command that it becomes clear that today the British army is just another self-perpetuating quango, not too dissimilar to the Environment Agency who, as we now realise, deserve to be drowned en masse in the floods to which their stupidity has contributed so much. But back to the army. As my occasional grumps over recent years in the direction of the top Brass have indicated, I have sensed a distinct lack of strategic and operational clarity and purpose from them, to say nothing of a total loss of moral authority. I have now almost finished Frank Ledwidge's excellent book, Losing Small Wars: British Miliatry Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan and it is quite clear that for the last few decades the Army has become a prime example of institutionalised stupidity!
It is impossible for me to summarise Ledwidge's entire book, I can only urge you to read it - and weep! I was about to write that perhaps the worst thing in it was his description of the hideous embarrassment occasioned by particularly stupid general officers talking down their noses (and out of their arses!) to the Americans because they reckoned the British army was the best in the world for dealing with insurrection warfare based on their experience of old campaigns like Malaya and Northern Island, and the Americans would simply roll their eyes and warn each other that if they ever had to listen to another know-it-all Brit they would not be responsible for their actions! But that, of course, was not the worst thing about either the unmitigated disaster of our pathetic failure to control Basra, or our even more utterly useless campaign in Helmand. No, the worst thing was all those bloody coffins coming down the ramps at Brize Norton and all those medical facilites filled with young men trying to come to terms with life without limbs.
All that, thank God, is about to come to an end and now it is time to think of the future. It is clear beyond the slightest doubt that the British army is unfit for purpose, not because of its troops but entirely because of its generals, its command structure, its lack of intellectual curiosity and its complete inability to think outside the box. (Incidentally, I refer to the army but I suspect that exactly the same strictures can be applied to the other two services.) Thus, it is necessary to take stock of our national position and plan our armed services accordingly. Oddly enough, financial reality has forced the 'Frocks' to begin taking the right decisions. We are no longer a global power. Happily, our neighbouring continent is more or less at peace with itself and it is obvious that we have no need to bankrupt ourselves trying to project our pitiful power round the world. Thus, all we need today, and for the foreseeable future, is a small but highly trained defence force along the lines of the Israeli Defence Force, that is, one based on a small regular army and a much larger reserve force. The recent cuts in the army and the efforts to recruit part-time reservists should be encouraged far beyond the recent modest attempts. At the same time, and using part of the money saved, their should be a tremendous increase in what I call 'e-warfare' equipment and operators. By that I mean everything from guided missiles to cyber systems for attack and defence. The aim should be to make this Island of ours exceedingly 'prickly'! The time has arrived in which it is feasable to halt an enemy in its tracks simply by crashing all his computer systems! As a first step on the way to creating a new 21st century British Defence Force, the government should start by sacking 4 out of every 5 officers in all three services over the rank of colonel. Then they should make clear that from now on they have no intention of putting British boots on foreign soil. Any bleats from the Foreign Office about how it might detract from our relationship with the Americans should, after sacking 1 in 3 of them, be ignored. The Americans, from Obama down, think we're rubbish anyway - and, bitterly I must admit, I don't blame them!
This is the second decade of a new century and we need to have a clear strategic aim and in my view that aim should be to invigorate our commerce by every means possible. When, and only when, we are a truly wealthy, and wealth-producing, country will our power and influence be noted by others. Until that happens my advice to our less than glorious leaders is - Think Small!
