Plenty of Tories are, it seems, cock-a-hoop about the news, still to be confirmed, that General Sir Richard Dannatt is to be elevated to the House of Lords where he will become a Tory defence adviser and, perhaps, a minister in the next Conservative government. And, in fairness, one can see why the Conservatives would be so pleased. There’s no-one on the Labour benches who brings as much firepower to the political battlefield as General Dannatt.
Yet if the government’s criticisms of General Dannatt were, at times, unseemly then so too was his very public dissension from (aspects of) government policy at a time when he was, after all, in charge of implementing that policy. General Dannatt thought little of stepping outside the chain-of-command. If nothing else this set a precedent that the Conservatives may find troubling once they are responsible for foreign and defence policy. After all, the Tories have declined to “ring-fence” the defence budget, making one wonder just how they will provide all the “necessary resources” the army says it needs. Our old friend Efficiency Savings can only be expected to do so much and even then we tend to over-estimate his capabilities.
Equally, let’s be blunt enough to admit that the brouhaha over equipment shortages has been useful for the army since it has deflected attention away from the army’s actual performance in the field. That doesn’t mean that the critics don’t have a point when it comes to equipment provision, merely that almost all armies in almost all conflicts grouse about equipment failures. But you go to war, as a chap once said, with the army you have, not the army of your dreams.
As I say, equipment and manpower are part of the equation, but not the only elements.
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