Word: britishisms
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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...
...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 2001. Silent crowds gather to pay respects each time casualties are repatriated to an air base on the edge of a town in southwest England called Wootton Bassett, but displays of public sympathy...
...distant battlefields but at home, in reaching a long overdue accommodation between past glories and present realities, between lofty ambitions and diminished global sway. Can Britain, whose military has for many years been considered one of the best in the world, make the leap? (See pictures of the British election being called...
...chaos has affected travelers in the Asia-Pacific region too. Monica Rouse, an Australian fashion designer living in London, had plans to return to Sydney Thursday morning on Qantas, the Australian carrier, to secure important documents for her British work visa. She received a text message that her flight was canceled but says Qantas is ill prepared to deal with the volume of complaints. "When I called, the girl could only tell me, 'You're not leaving today,' " she says. "If we don't call you in four hours, call us back...
...sudden eruption caused a mild panic on flights already airborne. Kuenga Wangmo, a doctoral student at Cambridge University, was on a British Airways flight from Delhi to London when she learned of the news. "I was woken up when the captain announced that British airspace was contaminated by ash from an Icelandic volcano," she says. "I had no idea what was happening. Some of the passengers were nervous, especially those flying on to Canada." Wangmo's flight was one of the last to land at Heathrow on Thursday. (Read "Why Iceland's Volcano Is a Hazard for Air Travel...