Peace In Our Time
‘THE thing with the US constitution is that the part about We the people is just about the best bit.
| The Army |
Lower down the order of things, around Article 29, the people are all given guns so that we can protect ourselves when the other we upset us.
In this county the gun is not all mighty, and, as the Guardian says, even our troops who invaded Iraq marched into battle with barely a functioning firearm between them.
We learn that 200,000 body armour suits disappeared, that many troops were not protected against chemical weapons and how a pair of decent boots was as hard to find as any weapon of mass destruction.
But things are set to change. The Telegraph reports that Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon and his peers have seen the problems and planned the way ahead.
The new White Paper on the Armed Forces suggests that we pretty much only use the number of soldiers to fill the equipment we can get our hands on.
This means fewer soldiers, fewer warships, fewer tanks and fewer planes.
As the White Paper puts it: It is highly likely that the Armed Forces will, in future, be employed on peace-support or counter-terrorism operations, rather than the defeat of opposing forces.
This is good new for peaceniks, given that the force of the future will barely be able to muster an excursion into the Isle of Wight, let alone a march into the Iraqi desert.
And even better news for anyone who wants to invade us…’
Posted: 12th, December 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
