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LadyEllen -> RE: About time. (1/12/2007 12:07:06 PM)
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The "problem" thompson, is that we spend an awful lot of money on social benefits (which in the main is a good thing, despite the abuses), so although we're a top 5 economy, we dont have the money to spend on defence that is required for fighting wars all over the world. The defence budget was severely curtailed when the cold war ended, and the money diverted to other things from which it is not easy to extricate it. What we're doing in Iraq and Afghanistan, we're doing with fewer resources than we once had in Germany, I'd bet.
The result is, that our forces are known as "the borrowers" - borrowing all sorts from other countries' forces in the field, and we dont have enough personal arms, ammunition, helmets or body armour for instance, for the troops we have on the ground. There was an inquest into the death of a soldier in Iraq, held here a month or so back - the recorder specifically blamed his death on government policy and on ministers themselves, because had he been issued standard protective equipment, he would not have died. He had been ordered to hand his in for the use of another soldier, only a day or so before.
And of course, we dont have the same money resource as the US in the first place. Nor the numbers of people, nor the whole social situation which encourages students to sign up so their college fees will be paid; our poorer kids just dont go to college, and end up living on social benefits.
As for brains, I regret to inform you that the fool who follows the fool must be held to be the greater fool. If we had the resources, I am extremely confident we'd match, pro rata, the increase in troops announced by Bush this week. Not because they'd be needed particularly, but because we seem to be under the impression that being the greater fool is a status worthy of regard.
E
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