As head of the British Army, General Sir Richard Dannatt generated a great deal of controversy over his outspoken criticism of the Labour government's woeful treatment of our brave Servicemen and women, who daily risk their lives in defence of this nation's liberty. Poor pay, inadequate living conditions and serious equipment shortages were among the many shortcomings Sir Richard highlighted during his three-year tenure, which came to a premature end when Gordon Brown took revenge by forcing him into retirement.
But the criticisms he now articulates are far more devastating than those he made when bound by the constraints of office. In his book Leading from the Front, which has been serialised in the Telegraph, Sir Richard accuses Mr Brown of being a "malign" presence at the Treasury, who starved the military of vital funds even though the government had committed it to fight two wars at once. He accuses Tony Blair of lacking the moral courage to confront Mr Brown over his failure to provide adequate funding.
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trategic Defence Review of 1997-98, which was supposed to see Britain's military moving from a Cold War footing to one which would be able to cope with global conflicts of the future.
The review was widely heralded as a success by the military and politicians alike but the concept failed to factor in Gordon Brown's "malign" indifference to the military.
After the funding targets were set and accepted they were immediately reduced by the Treasury's demand for "efficiency savings".
As Dannatt observes: "In effect we had the absurd situation where the occupant of No 10 said, 'We will do this or that' while his neighbour said, 'Fine, Tony, but I am not going to pay for it.'
The problem for the armed forces as the new millennium approached was further exacerbated by Blair's failure to impose his will on Brown because, according to Dannatt, he lacked the necessary "moral courage".
The IRA, Serbian warlords, Islamic fundamentalists, Shia insurgents and the Taliban have all been enemies of Dannatt during his 40 years of military service, during which he won a Military Cross at the age of 22 while serving in Northern Ireland.
But also into this mix could easily be thrown government ministers, civil servants, accountants, fellow defence chiefs and the Byzantine bureaucracy of the Ministry of Defence.
It is abundantly clear from the book that under the leadership of New Labour, the MoD was an underfunded, overburdened, dysfunctional organisation incapable of making timely decisions.
Dannatt explains how inter-service rivalries, in-fighting and political incompetence lead to the "perfect storm" of Britain fighting two wars on two fronts without being properly funded for either.
Funding failures in the early Labour years meant that cuts and delays to equipment programmes were inevitable.
By: Brant
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