Forces Forum: A Broken Covenant?
April 1st, 2008 by Defence Team — Forum, Afghanistan, Iraq, Welfare
The impact of the Iraq war and our intervention in Afghanistan is taking its toll on the troops and on morale, retention and recruitment. More than ever in recent history our forces are at a point of critical overstretch.
This week we want to ask what you think about the military covenant, the mutual obligation that binds the nation, the Army and each individual soldier and is meant to guarantee that in exchange for personal sacrifices and the forgoing of some personal rights and freedoms the Army are treated with fairness, respect and an adequate ‘duty of care’ :
- What is the real cost of operations and the impact of overstretch on our current operations overseas and the future for our armed forces?
- Is the Government doing enough for the armed forces?
- What more needs to be done to honour the military covenant?
3 comments ↓
I don’t know why we continue to support a British (fighting) presence in Afghanistan. Any student of history will tell you that it is a no-win situation, as all past invaders have found out to their cost.
…thank you for these intelligent questions and the opportunity to share thoughts and pent-up expression.
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Q.
What is the real cost of operations and the impact of overstretch on our current operations overseas and the future for our armed forces?
A.
The costs are many fold. The cost to our reputation as a humanitarian nation, the cost to our troops in lives, trust and for many…sanity, faith and well-being, the cost to our individual sense of worth as citizens of this country – we are not heard, our views are ignored, we are taken into situations we would not choose to be in or fund, if we had been given the full and honest facts… and the cost to our security now we have made so very many enemies (combined with the resulting cost to our civil liberties).
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Q.
Is the Government doing enough for the armed forces?
A.
No. From the beginning when they put our forces at risk by sending them into illegal, poorly planned, non-legitimised occupation – through the lack of provision of suitable equipment to the ‘welcome home’ our honourable forces don’t get because none of us can cheer dthe eath and destruction of a nation that was no threat to us. Our forces choose this profession believing they will serve their country – not the whims and desires of a government in power that chooses to abuse it and them.
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Q.
What more needs to be done to honour the military covenant?
A.
First and foremost – truth must be declared. Our government MUST face up to the future and the past by establishing a clear purpose for our troops – a purpose that is made public and clear. Once we have purpose we can have some idea where the government imagines it is taking us and our ever more vulnerable forces. How dare they presume to take our young and put them in harm’s way with no noble cause or honest, wise reason to do so. The troops deserve more, – but as we have recently witnessed with the treatment of loyal Gurkhas, our government has is neither honourable nor fair.
That the United Kingdom now has no military hospitals is particularly obscene. The idea that injured soldiers are being ‘dumped’ on the NHS is perhaps a bit harsh on the NHS, but it’s simple common sense that the average hospital will not be that experienced with bullet wounds and other combat injuries. Sure, a lot of the time military hospitals will lie idle, but that’s normal for a big chunk of the armed forces. Re-open Haslar if possible, or build a new one from scratch.
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