Photo: Serious dilemmas: Brigadier Ed Butler had only 3,350 personnel to fight the Taliban in AfghanistanFrom The Daily Mail:
Ministers sent British troops into southern Afghanistan with such tough spending limits that they were only allowed enough manpower to fight one battle a month, senior commanders revealed today.
Brigadier Ed Butler, the highly-respected officer who led UK forces into Helmand Province in the summer of 2006, told MPs how a 'Treasury-imposed cap' left him with just 3,350 personnel to confront the Taliban.
That was only enough fighting power for 'one significant operation a month' - and not enough to cope with extra battles or unexpected strains, he told the Commons Defence Select Committee.
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My Comment: In 1992 I visited my uncle in St. Petersburg in 1992, and I was excited to finally meet someone who I had never met before. He was once a Director within the Soviet military, and his specialty was on communication satellites. But when I met him I saw an alcoholic, who had been unemployed for the past few years. When I asked him to show me where he once worked, what I saw was an abandoned military complex that was being bulldozed for a new mall. It was there and then that I realized that the Soviet Union was no more, and that Russia was no longer a serious military power.
After reading this Daily Mail article .... I can now say the same about Britain.