This was the assessment of The Guardian (Oct. 28, 2003). A further report by The Sunday Telegraph revealed that "the Army's armoured regiments had been left crippled by the Iraqi war with only half its battle tanks capable of operational service" (Nov. 30, 2003).

Soon afterwards, in mid-December, the British government, seeking to solve these knotty problems, published a strategic white paper. The government's aim is to restructure the military with one third of British Challenger II tanks to be mothballed along with the jettisoning of certain types of aircraft. Royal Navy equipment also faced curtailment.

But according to noted author/editor Max Hastings, the main troubles do not revolve around Iraq or some notorious equipment distribution problems during the Iraqi campaign and its aftermath. He recently wrote: "The real issues—which amount to a major scandal—concern the continuing funding of the armed forces, amid a grievous current spending gap which the treasury has no intention of filling; and weapons programmes for the next generation, costing tens of billions of pounds.

"The National Audit Office revealed last month that the biggest projects are over £3 billion over budget. Some of these contracts are for systems as relevant as a fleet of dreadnoughts [battleships]. Foremost is the Eurofighter ... This aircraft is a cold war interceptor for which no conceivable rationale any longer exists" (The Spectator, Feb. 7, emphasis added). (Sources: The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Spectator [all London].)