|
Wednesday, November 20, 2002
01:22 a.m.
British Army: further signs of ducking out of invasion
Updating my piece of a couple of hours ago.
An item by Mark Urban on British involvement in an Iraq invasion in tonight's Newsnight [1]. The line was that, whereas the US were preparing to go in with a force of 100,000, which would be ready by the end of December, the British had done nothing to mobilise: a British armoured brigade would take two months to get from Europe to the Gulf, apparently.
The programme mentioned other difficulties - callup of medical reservists (also a 2 month lead time) hasn't started (the majority of British Army doctors are reservists); and likely force participants are tied down in UK to provide cover for the fire service strikes.
The suggestion was that the UK might end up just sending special forces and air - strangely, my 'conclusion' in the earlier piece - though Urban did not mention any of the equipment difficulties that would be a cogent reason for avoiding a substantial deployment.
However, he finished the piece with a warning that a light US force was a risky option: implicit was the suggestion that the war might well not be over before the British slowcoaches eventually turned up. Not the most inviting of propositions I'd have thought, even for the most enthusiastic British commander!
- Streamed in Real - link good up till 2230 GMT November 20 (item starts around 17'15" in )
|
