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British response to ISIS makes me feel bad for their troops
11 years ago
General
Roughly 10% of their deployed planes are combat worthy...
Their new carrier which cost billions, can't afford an air-wing that costs millions...
And their pilots are eating MREs meant for Iraqis.
Seriously why the everloving fuck do the British Military get treated so shitty by their government? US service personnel love to bitch about their conditions, but nothing ever gets this fucked up.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30338659
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2863011/Morale-sapped-RAF-pilots-flying-raids-surviving-Iraqi-aid-rations-using-broken-equipment.html
Their new carrier which cost billions, can't afford an air-wing that costs millions...
And their pilots are eating MREs meant for Iraqis.
Seriously why the everloving fuck do the British Military get treated so shitty by their government? US service personnel love to bitch about their conditions, but nothing ever gets this fucked up.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30338659
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2863011/Morale-sapped-RAF-pilots-flying-raids-surviving-Iraqi-aid-rations-using-broken-equipment.html
There's an inherent problem with trying to go to war with an 'ism', or really a tactic in the case of terrorism, but we went to war with Al Qaeda and at best all these years later the worst of them are in Yemen causing Yemeni issues, not attacking New York or London. So you can go to war with an organization, or much more easily, a state as ISIS claims to be... But this is ignoring that airstrikes are not large-scale military operations the same way say, D-Day was. Even then, airstrikes need forces on the ground too, like in Desert Storm or Kosovo. I don't know who the boots here are, a battered and mismanged Iraqi National Army that all but doesn't exist? Maybe the Kurds who only really care about Kurds? The FSA who are backed against the wall by ISIS and Assad, and who the US leadership seems to drool over despite them only being a victory away from another civil war?
It's poorly conceived, but regardless, if you put even pilots out 'in theatre' you at least give them a fighting chance with working equipment and decent nutrition. Political misgivings aren't a reason to take it out on troops who have no choice in the matter, and at best are at least killing and harming the asshats.
The UK's defense (defence?) spending and mission seem to be on two different planets. It's what leads to a lot of these half-measures and mismatched levels of expensive equipment and no cheaper consumables to run them. Seriously, as ANY British Army or Royal Marine about how many times firing practice was conducted with blanks and it's readily apparent the MOD is pennywise and poundfoolish.
You can't be America in terms of force projection, and that's fine, but you need to have a working military, and some of the corners being cut are fundamental ones.
http://www.parentdish.co.uk/2014/10/20/halloween-pumpkin-carving-kit-with-sharp-blade-sold-to-10-year-old-boy/
The horror!
http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/crime/brad-pitt-s-fury-co-star-jailed-for-having-gun-in-hartlepool-home-1-6989312
Own an antique pistol since those were legal and 49 rounds for it(hint, the usually come in boxes of 50), but harm nobody? Yeah, spend years in prison.