Blair accuses army of cowardice

Seriously:

That meant defence spending would have to increase and the country would have to accept new realities about the nature of the fight.

"On the part of the military, they need to accept that in a volunteer armed force, conflict and therefore casualty may be part of what they are called upon to face.

Where does he get the idea that the military is unwilling to accept casualties? It’s obviously going to be unwilling to accept more than it actually has to sustain, and that situation might be improved by better kit and logistics. A sense that they weren’t involved in something futile might be generally helpful.

It’s plain bizarre to start a speech with an open ended commitment to war and then go on to accuse the army of cowardice. But this does seem to be an emerging theme of the endless farewell waltz. We’ve all let him down in our various ways, and we should all be thoroughly ashamed of ourselves.

Comments

[Chris Williams]

Perhaps those very few squaddies who joined in 1968 can be forgiven for not expecting casualties. That was the only year since anyone started counting that the British Army's not had anyone killed in action.

Meanwhile, let's have a Brecht spreadbet: how many times between now and "Goodbye Tony - see you in The Hague - Day" is someone going to quote the line about electing a new people? My money's on 378 results for a Google search on Blair+"elect a new people".

[jamie]

We seem to be already getting a lot of comment along these lines, except that it's meant seriously.

[Backword Dave]

Well, 'volunteer' is entirely redundant in Blair's speech. Israel has conscription and members of their armed forces, I believe, know that they may be called into conflict.
Second, when I've met ex-members of the armed forces, they're very well aware of the dangers. They can be as morbid as medics. They know that a sniper a mile away can kill you and you'd never know.
Third, "The purpose of war is not to die for your country. The purpose of war is to make the other guys die for theirs." Patton. Blair isn't just a managerialist. He's a shit manager too.
BTW, I laughed out loud at Steve Bell today - for the first time in years.