That is a highly offensive, highly innaccurate statement. The UK military has been the only one outside of the US to actually place itself into heavy combat and it has performed superbly. The British military doesn’t award medals for nothing. Have a look at the dozens of articles about British gallantry on this website. Some awards have been made to UK troops for actions in saving US personnel. The US military has also been superb, but your statement disrespecting the British neglects the US’s own embarrassments:
1) Military personnel captured at sea by Iran without a fight in 2003.
2) British Royal Marines replacing a certain US unit in Afghanistan in 2002 (at the request of the US command) as a certain US unit ‘didn’t do mountains’.
3) The refusal of a unit of US personnel in Iraq to go out on convoy duty. A mutiny over driving supplies.
4) The highly publicised, still debated, incident caught on film where a civilian convoy driver alleged that his US military escprt abandoned him and hs colleagues when under attack.
5) The port of Umm Qasr copntained stubborn pockets of resistance in Iraq during the Iraq invasion in 2003. US forces in the port tried for several days to get rid of it. The Royal Marines subdued the town in 24 hours when called (you may remember that they recieved specific praise for this from the US military).
I could go on.
This compares to:
British embarrassments:
1) Royal Navy personnel captured by Iran
Presumably, by your logic the US military has been even more ‘less than stellar in their bravery and combat ability’.
What a load of nonsense. Both the US and British militaries have performed heroically in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the way: so what if Lady Thatcher isn’t in charge of the UK? You could hardly accuse Britain of being shy when it comes to using its military in recent years.
yeah it gets tiring on these threads reading some of the comments from chum(p)s who dont know any better.
We know the truth though, so damn the rest of the naysayers.
Concerning the article, I must say thats its good to see that we are sticking by our commitment to the Falklands (due in part to economic reasons ;]). Nothing is free on this world, and if we can get a nice big fossil fuel field in the South Atlantic, then us back home get some of the benefits.
As for our ability to defend ourselves and our territories in the event of an attack, I have every confidence. Battle hardened troops, protecting British territory...We would be fine.
The Brits on the Falklands won't be suprised by an attack from Argentina this time.
I agree, I have served with 1 MEF twice in Iraq. First during the invasion, then during the occupation. Before we invaded, the Brits and us used to trade MREs and other stuff with each other. A real good bunch of guys. I have nothing but respect for the Royal Army and Marines.