As our aircraft are now over Libya, has Afghanistan taken a back seat?

[Paveway-IV]

I surely hope it hasn't but with our Armed Forces stretched already the planes have to come from somewhere.

[boxtops]

They can't commit us to the UN objective if it means taking planes away from an existing tour of duty, surely.

[DTCwordfan]

I am sure we have a few planes to spare for the European theatre......and I understand that it is becoming a true allied air effort with the Americans, Canadians, the Arabs and Italians coming in.

I think the real question in this is not the Raf at the moment, or the Army (as ground troops are not yet mandated) but the capacity of our Navy. maybe it will force (no oun intended) a rethink on Ark Royal. For the moment I understand that naval power is largely American and French.

The clear thing in all of this is that this lunatic can not carry on like this, attacking his own people. OK, they have not yet requested land assistance but clearing Qadaffi's air and gun positions will help the "rebels" enormously. In doing so, hopefully we save countless thousands of lives if we had not committed.

And by the way, there are similar parallels for genocide that the tw@ts Blair and Bush chose to ignore that would have fully justified our intervention in Iraq on similar genocide grounds.

[Paveway-IV]

True DTcrosswordfan i think they need to rethink the Arc Royal. Its kind of embarrassing that France has a aircraft carrier the ' Charles de Gaulle' and we don't. However i would go one step futher and include the Harrier, as just to bring back the Arc Royal without the harrier. All we would have is a glorified helicoper landing pad.

[DTCwordfan]

better than nothing though......

[dotty.]

Hopefully this will stop any more defence cuts for a while

[DTCwordfan]

the USS Nimitz did a remarkable job in Galveston with only helicopters and a bucket load of bulldozers, shovels, trash compactors and incinerators etc and loads of hands after Hurricane Ike - it was one of the learning lessons from Katrina. Such "platforms" can provide amazing flexibility and storage capacity for essentials in a crisis.

[DTCwordfan]

I disagree with that statement, dotty, bit like saying that NHS needs no cuts - it does - in all the back room admin - when I had a gall bladder op, my details had to be submitted eight times (three I would say ok)..... the Police - the same why do we need all these county forces each with their Chief Super, senior ranks, Finance Mgrs, HR Mgrs, PR Managers etc (down here Cornwall/Devon/Dorset/Avon and Somerset is still way, way smaller than say Greater Manchester) - we don't need the expense. In terms of defence, we don't need all these tanks and troops stationed in Europe........

Shape up our services for today and tomorrow - not yesterday.

[dotty.]

Back in 1981, they were cutting back on personel and equipment, cancelling contracts all over the place, then what happens? The Argentinians land at Port Stanley, if that had happened 12 months later it would have been game over, (If it had happened 12 months earlier i wouldn't have a 29 year old son mind).
The tanks and troops stationed in Europe were mobilised pretty damn fast back then.,

[craft1948]

I think our submarine's just lobbed some missiles in...........

[DTCwordfan]

Hope so - had a possible chance to meet him back in 2001 but I was dispatched overseas - never met a despot unless you classify Le Dame Thatch as one

[stokemaveric]

the french are involved in this 1...i wouldnt trust them....they will back out when troops are needed on the ground...and they will be eventually....

[DTCwordfan]

E-Bay Ad

"For sale, 10,000 French machine guns, never been used, only dropped once, best offers."

[stokemaveric]

pmsl dt...very true....

[DTCwordfan]

there's a whole string of them - given we have navies as well, why do the Italian Navy have glass keels.

To see where the old Italian Navy is on the seabed.

[owdhamer]

I thought the french would have surrendered by now.

[stokemaveric]

when the going gets tough owdhamer ...they will....

[owdhamer]

Odds on Stoke

[stokemaveric]

zeb gadaffi has threatened to shoot down holiday jets over the med..he has stockpiles of mustard gas,he is a madman so is capable of anything..we owe this guy a couple of bullets for lockerbie and the murder of wpc yvonne fletcher...