Quote Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall
Absolutely. Given ten years of totally corrupt and incompetant government it's really hard to see why we ever got rid of them.
Mainly because of the 18 years of corrupt and incompetent government that preceded it. Don't forget we fought a war (Falklands) because Thatcher pushed through defence cuts against the advice of both Defence and the Foreign Office. W've got something like 1000 troops down there deterring the Argies whereas we used to do the same with a single ship.

Many of the New Labour problems with the military lie in the contradiction between their desire to be an international power and the socialist belief that everyone is a citizen. If Blair wanted to use the military as befitting an imperial power, he needed to recognise the military are a class unto itself. Letting ideas of citizenship bleed into the military world only works if you're thinking of them as a Defence force, whose motivation lies in their ties to community. Once you start sending them abroad you'll need to give them another world to believe in. This contradiction could be seen in a microcosm when a General complained that his wounded were being treated in a civilian hospital, when he wanted them to stay within the military sphere throughout their recuperation. One could see the rationale for this move, but one could also see that it was plainly wrong and counterproductive.