Word: worldly
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...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 not on 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...
...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...
...Sandhurst's program of officer training, compulsory for all British army officers, is a distillation of centuries of accrued knowledge combined with a rigorous practical regime. It attracts applicants from all over the world including China and the U.S., and has stiffened the sinews of the heads of state of eight countries plus a clutch of royals, including the British princes William and Harry. "When I was in Sierra Leone meeting a Kenyan battalion, it was exactly like being back at Sandhurst," says Major General Andy Salmon, former commandant general of the Royal Marines, the last British commander...
...Colonel Tim Checketts, Sandhurst's chief of staff. The academy is uniquely placed "to develop character, intellect and professional competence." He adds: "At their age [the cadets] are all wonderfully optimistic. We do give them some intensive lessons in the realities of war." (Read: "A Window on a Lost World...
...wear and tear. Britain's soldiers remain a focus for national pride, and the fresh-minted officers being turned out by Sandhurst embody a grand tradition. But unless Britain's politicians find a way of reconciling the U.K.'s reflexive desire to take a leading role on the world stage with the nation's straitened circumstances, they risk letting down those brave and tough young men and women so eager to exchange the simulated battlefield for the real thing...