Word: britain
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...Politicians continue to justify the adventures in Iraq and in Afghanistan, where British troop levels now stand at 9,500, in terms of national security. Britain, it is said, must take the fight to the bad guys to keep its citizens safe. Yet as the list of rickety states and terror havens has continued to expand, defense spending has failed to keep pace even as equipment costs have spiraled upward. The prospect of lean times as Britain reins in its budget deficit has pitched army, navy and air force commanders into open turf wars. Lower down the ranks, the endemic...
...bleeding to death," shouts commanding officer Major Emily Greenwood. The assault - against a nest of "Maliban" insurgents - is a simulation in Wales, the wounds faked. But Greenwood's urgency is all too real. Within a year of completing their training this month, some 60% of these officer cadets from Britain's élite Royal Military Academy Sandhurst will deploy to Afghanistan. There, says Greenwood, "the pace of operations is so fast and there's constant enemy contact. We have to make sure they're ready...
...Rebecca Marsden, a 25-year-old cadet, says there will be no problem with that: "We can't wait to go to Afghanistan." But it's not just the Taliban that Sandhurst's alumni will have to worry about. As it prepares for a general election on May 6, Britain is having to come to terms with a grim reality: its armed forces are in a state of crisis. Soldiers are profoundly battle weary. Grim statistics tell one part of the story: 179 British soldiers killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009; 280 lost to the conflict in Afghanistan since...
...Britain's jingoistic press always likes to revisit the Battle of Waterloo, but such fulminations obscure the deeper significance of the Green Paper and the Strategic Defence Review it foreshadows. The SDR, expected this autumn, will be the first such exercise in 12 turbulent years. Any decisions Britain takes on the future role and capacity of its military - on exactly what the country expects of those bright-eyed Sandhurst cadets - will help determine the way Britain is perceived in the world. And that will determine the way Britons see themselves. The biggest challenge for this once great imperial power lies...
...understand the impact on the national psyche of this and other high-profile setbacks suffered by British forces deployed to Iraq, you must first appreciate the luster of Britain's military heritage. More than 60 years after World War II, Britons still grow up marinated in tales of their nation's wartime victories. By no means the world's most richly resourced fighting force, nor its largest, the country's military has long provided an international role model. Smart, flexible and cohesive, the services have been seasoned by working in contrasting terrains and in conflicts with a wide range...