Is the Royal Navy too small?
British Forces as a whole are too small. It is not just a question of meeting our obligations, which as one of the ex-great powers, are a serious burden, but of what it does to the people who do go out and meet those obligations. The uneducated may well laugh but what the British Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force have achieved over the past century has set the standard for military operations everywhere. On the whole, the British Seaman, Soldier and Airman stands for right against wrong, defends the weak against the aggressor, and does it better than any other force in the world. But it comes at a price. The price is paid in terms of human suffering. A soldier who is in deployment after deployment may well find that he is doing a worthwhile job – although one does sometimes wonder if… – but in the meantime, he no longer sees his wife and children, has no social life at all, and knows that immediately this deployment finished, another one will come up before he gets the chance to r
