Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Los Angeles Times
January 13, 2007
As undersupplied British troops struggle, the prime minister warns against giving up the role of defender.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
LONDON — With its armed forces severely strained by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain must commit itself to major new defense expenditures if it intends to remain one of the world's premier military powers, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday.
The growing toll on the British military in the anti-terrorism fight, with reports of troops occasionally running low on ammunition, struggling with jammed weapons and going for weeks without hot meals, has put the nation at a crossroads. Britain must now decide whether it will remain the global military force it has been since the days of empire, Blair said.
"There is a case for Britain in the early 21st century, with its imperial strength behind it, to slip quietly, even graciously, into a different role. We become leaders in the fight against climate change, against global poverty, for peace and reconciliation, and leave the demonstration of 'hard' power to others," Blair told Royal Navy personnel gathered on the assault ship Albion in southern England.
"The risk here — and in the U.S., where the future danger is one of isolationism, not adventurism — is that the politicians decide it's all too difficult and default to an unstated, passive disengagement. That doing the right thing slips almost unconsciously into doing the easy thing," he said.
Instead, Blair outlined an ambitious plan for maintaining top troop levels, embarking on a major new warship-building program and renewing the nation's compact with its undersupplied military forces. The effort would be aimed at maintaining Britain as a key player in combating terrorism around the globe.
Analysts say it will take billions of dollars to upgrade and overhaul the nation's defense network, at a time when the British public is deeply skeptical about the deployment of more than 7,000 troops in Iraq and 5,600 in Afghanistan. An additional 8,500 soldiers are stationed in Northern Ireland, but are scheduled to be withdrawn soon.
Pullout signaled
The British government has signaled its intention to begin pulling out of southern Iraq by the end the year, though Blair has since said Britain will not withdraw until Iraqi forces are securely in control in the south.
The prime minister, who is scheduled to step down this year after a decade in power, did not make any concrete proposals for how to fund his vision. His probable successor, treasury chief Gordon Brown, has been lukewarm both on the Iraq war and on any substantial new funding for defense.
"I think what we're seeing now is Tony Blair staking out his legacy. But there is a serious point to it," said Paul Beaver, a London-based independent military analyst. "I think he now realizes that the armed forces we have in this country have not been configured for the sort of things he has asked them to do. They have been undersourced for a long time, and they're expected to do a lot more than what was originally planned."
British news reports in recent months have displayed photographs of military barracks in Britain with leaking pipes and cracked and moldy walls.
The Daily Mail carried a chilling e-mail from an officer deployed in Afghanistan who described a "ferocious" firefight with the Taliban in which British troops ran out of machine-gun ammunition and mortar rounds. "I haven't had a hot meal for almost three weeks," the officer wrote.
In remarks published in October, army chief Gen. Richard Dannatt warned that a prolonged deployment in Iraq at current levels could "break" the army. The nation, he said, could run the risk of not fulfilling its covenant with the armed forces, under which soldiers expect respect and decent conditions in exchange for risking their lives.
Blair said overall defense spending since 1997 had remained at about 2.5% of gross domestic product, one of the highest levels in the world. But the "massive" new shipbuilding program would cost an additional $28 billion over the next 10 to 15 years, he said, at a time when the services also plan to spend $10 billion on updating military housing.
Continuing threat
Blair said the continuing threat of international terrorism underscored Britain's need to remain a powerful military presence.
"What we face is not a criminal conspiracy or even a fanatical-but-fringe terrorist organization. We face something more akin to revolutionary communism in its early and most militant phase. It is global," he said. "It has a narrative about the world and Islam's place within it that has a reach into most Muslim societies and countries. Its adherents may be limited; its sympathizers are not. It has states or at least parts of the governing apparatus of states that give it succor.
"Its belief system may be, indeed is, utterly reactionary. But its methods are terrifyingly modern," Blair said. "To retreat in the face of this threat would be a catastrophe."
Alex Nicoll, director of defense analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Britain for the last eight years has been revamping its armed forces to make them more flexible and easily deployable.
"The problem is that [after] the goals they set out in 1998 in the Strategic Defense Review, events have forced a greater level of deployment overseas than was foreseen," he said. "That has clearly put strains on the armed forces. They have significantly increased defense spending, but you only have to listen to the various voices that are being raised from within the armed forces to know that the strains are really quite extreme right now."
January 13, 2007
As undersupplied British troops struggle, the prime minister warns against giving up the role of defender.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
LONDON — With its armed forces severely strained by deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain must commit itself to major new defense expenditures if it intends to remain one of the world's premier military powers, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday.
The growing toll on the British military in the anti-terrorism fight, with reports of troops occasionally running low on ammunition, struggling with jammed weapons and going for weeks without hot meals, has put the nation at a crossroads. Britain must now decide whether it will remain the global military force it has been since the days of empire, Blair said.
"There is a case for Britain in the early 21st century, with its imperial strength behind it, to slip quietly, even graciously, into a different role. We become leaders in the fight against climate change, against global poverty, for peace and reconciliation, and leave the demonstration of 'hard' power to others," Blair told Royal Navy personnel gathered on the assault ship Albion in southern England.
"The risk here — and in the U.S., where the future danger is one of isolationism, not adventurism — is that the politicians decide it's all too difficult and default to an unstated, passive disengagement. That doing the right thing slips almost unconsciously into doing the easy thing," he said.
Instead, Blair outlined an ambitious plan for maintaining top troop levels, embarking on a major new warship-building program and renewing the nation's compact with its undersupplied military forces. The effort would be aimed at maintaining Britain as a key player in combating terrorism around the globe.
Analysts say it will take billions of dollars to upgrade and overhaul the nation's defense network, at a time when the British public is deeply skeptical about the deployment of more than 7,000 troops in Iraq and 5,600 in Afghanistan. An additional 8,500 soldiers are stationed in Northern Ireland, but are scheduled to be withdrawn soon.
Pullout signaled
The British government has signaled its intention to begin pulling out of southern Iraq by the end the year, though Blair has since said Britain will not withdraw until Iraqi forces are securely in control in the south.
The prime minister, who is scheduled to step down this year after a decade in power, did not make any concrete proposals for how to fund his vision. His probable successor, treasury chief Gordon Brown, has been lukewarm both on the Iraq war and on any substantial new funding for defense.
"I think what we're seeing now is Tony Blair staking out his legacy. But there is a serious point to it," said Paul Beaver, a London-based independent military analyst. "I think he now realizes that the armed forces we have in this country have not been configured for the sort of things he has asked them to do. They have been undersourced for a long time, and they're expected to do a lot more than what was originally planned."
British news reports in recent months have displayed photographs of military barracks in Britain with leaking pipes and cracked and moldy walls.
The Daily Mail carried a chilling e-mail from an officer deployed in Afghanistan who described a "ferocious" firefight with the Taliban in which British troops ran out of machine-gun ammunition and mortar rounds. "I haven't had a hot meal for almost three weeks," the officer wrote.
In remarks published in October, army chief Gen. Richard Dannatt warned that a prolonged deployment in Iraq at current levels could "break" the army. The nation, he said, could run the risk of not fulfilling its covenant with the armed forces, under which soldiers expect respect and decent conditions in exchange for risking their lives.
Blair said overall defense spending since 1997 had remained at about 2.5% of gross domestic product, one of the highest levels in the world. But the "massive" new shipbuilding program would cost an additional $28 billion over the next 10 to 15 years, he said, at a time when the services also plan to spend $10 billion on updating military housing.
Continuing threat
Blair said the continuing threat of international terrorism underscored Britain's need to remain a powerful military presence.
"What we face is not a criminal conspiracy or even a fanatical-but-fringe terrorist organization. We face something more akin to revolutionary communism in its early and most militant phase. It is global," he said. "It has a narrative about the world and Islam's place within it that has a reach into most Muslim societies and countries. Its adherents may be limited; its sympathizers are not. It has states or at least parts of the governing apparatus of states that give it succor.
"Its belief system may be, indeed is, utterly reactionary. But its methods are terrifyingly modern," Blair said. "To retreat in the face of this threat would be a catastrophe."
Alex Nicoll, director of defense analysis at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Britain for the last eight years has been revamping its armed forces to make them more flexible and easily deployable.
"The problem is that [after] the goals they set out in 1998 in the Strategic Defense Review, events have forced a greater level of deployment overseas than was foreseen," he said. "That has clearly put strains on the armed forces. They have significantly increased defense spending, but you only have to listen to the various voices that are being raised from within the armed forces to know that the strains are really quite extreme right now."