Britain's Armed Forces Crisis - stretched beyond their limits fighting two wars

by LotusFlower | June 25, 2008 at 12:16 am | 218 views | 2 comments

World Can't Wait Los Angeles November 2nd

by 03202003

Britain's head of the armed forces says that fighting two wars at once in Iraq and Afghanistan,has stretched Britain's army beyond its limits. There is still widespread support for British troops from the public but not for the political decision to keep these wars going.

Britain's Armed Forces cannot go on running two major military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the head of the Armed Forces has admitted.

The two wars have left the Forces "stretched beyond the capabilities we have," Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said.

It is the first time the most senior officer in the British military has expressed such grave doubts about the struggle faced by troops fighting wars on two fronts.
And his comments came as it was announced another British soldier has been killed in a firefight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, taking the UK death toll in the country to 107

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zichi

at 01:45 on June 25th, 2008

If I was a fighting man, which I'm not, I would say this is a very sorry state of affairs. In the British Army there are about 101,000 active personel out of which 22,000 are stationed in Germany. Why do we still need to keep so many soldiers in Germany? The Cold War is over. 3,000 soldiers are stationed on Cyprus, and much smaller numbers elsewhere. A further 4,000 are deployed in Iraq and soon the number in Afghanistan will be increased to 8,000.

So, out of 101,000 soldiers only 12,000 or a little more than 10% are on active duty in the so called war against terrorism.

"The two wars have left the Forces "stretched beyond the capabilities we have," Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup said."

How will we defend our country from invasion if the army can not even take care of just 12,000 soldiers? There is something wrong here?