DEFENSE: Budgetary considerations in the UK

While the Pentagon, the State Department and the CIA are well represented in our debate, I called for the views of taxpayers, prone in the US to condemn big government and big budgets, Instead, we have a view from the Ian Hilton of the UK. The military view as reported by a conservative newspaper may be self-serving: "I have read with interest recent postings on budgetary considerations vis-a-visa CIA, State and the military. Of course, blank cheques can not be written and prioritizing can always be a tricky business. Cutting costs brings its own hazards, as the following extracts from The Daily Telegraph (29. October) - under the heading 'MoD [Ministry of Defence] cuts cause chaos in desert' would suggest: At the end of a lengthy joint UK-Oman military exercise, the UK's Chief of General Staff admitted that "attempts to cut the cost of a showpiece exercise had led to half its tanks breaking down in the desert". The suggestion is that the "penny-pinching" would/could cause the cost to rise from 93 Million to nearly 150 Million pounds sterling. "We took the decision not to desertise [sic] the tanks. It was a question of cost." Ironically, Oman had bought a "desertised" version of the same tank, which apparently worked perfectly during the exercise. Praise be that on this occasion it was but an exercise".

Ronald Hilton - 10/30/01