Britain s elite commandos lack the right altitude to take on Al-Qaeda

The Sunday Times (U.K.) ^ | 03/24/2002 | John Barry

[razorback-bert]

Hey, West Texas is not the end of the earth!

But it is only a day's walk away.

[Poohbah]

Hey, West Texas is not the end of the earth!

But it is only a day's walk away.

A very leisurely day's walk, at that.

[Former Proud Canadian]

The purpose of the 'quiet period' right now is to let the missle manufacturers replenish the military stocks.

This is the second time I have heard this and I must say, it seem valid. Cruise missle stocks were almost completely run down during the previous administration. This pause gives time to build up cruise missles, UAV's, training, intelligence, diplomatic moves. Everyone says Iraq is next. That great military mind Chris Mathews claims 200,000 men would be needed to march against Bagdad (what a dope). There is no build up of ground forces around Iraq, like during the Gulf war, so, obviously there is no ground war being contemplated.

[Seydlitz]

The difference is that British soldiers are far more well trained than their American counter-parts. Royal Marine basic training is 45 weeks (53 weeks for officers). Moreover, their unit cohesion is much better, as they have much lower personnel turnover rates than their American counter-parts.

[Travis McGee]

The difference is that British soldiers are far more well trained than their American counter-parts. Big Baboon Balls.

If you want to compare your cooks and clerks and band musicians to our ours, you may have a point.

But if you want to compare front line combat units, such as our Rangers and Marine Recon etc, you are whistling out your arse.

Hell, you don't even have rifles which a troop can rely on....except your American imports.

And where do your units come for the hardest widest "live fire" training?

The USA.

[Squantos]

What branch, speciality and nation did you serve Seydlitz ? Or is this just your opinion ?

[aimlow]

It was on the MEU homepage

[blam]

"I hope that doesn't happen. It could happen. In the meantime enjoy life. Take some time to watch the trees grow. Don't beat the dog today, let somebody else watch the lion."

10-4/Roger