Afghanistan: Uncertainty is probably the best we can hope for
ALLAN MALLINSON: It seems to me that while the future for Afghanistan may indeed be as bleak as some commentators are suggesting, if we take out our troops prematurely, the bleak future will probably...
View Article'You just have to support them': The patriotic small businesses releasing...
ALLAN MALLINSON: Does anybody know how much we’ve relied on employers to release TA soldiers? The whole medical effort in Helmand would fall apart without TA medics, for example.
View ArticleHave the Tories forgotten they are supposed to be the party of Defence?
ALLAN MALLINSON: I was heartened the other day by a headline which read: 'The Tory party has lost sight of its true values: ‘Decontaminating’ the brand has alienated voters – but there is a way back.'
View ArticleThe Court-Martial of Corporal C: What has happened to Military Judgement?
ALLAN MALLINSON: In my thirty-five years in the army I’m afraid I had to put a good number of soldiers in jail, as well as sit as a member of courts martial.
View ArticleThe Argentine video: Unsophisticated, Unmanly, Unacceptable
ALLAN MALLINSON: It reveals a callousness towards the war dead that betrays a fundamental lack of respect for human life – the hallmark of the junta that killed so many of its own young men in the...
View ArticleThe turn-round on carriers is right: Why the wrong course in the first place?
ALLAN MALLINSON: The case is plain enough. The cost of fitting catapults and arrestor gear ('cats and traps') to the carriers for the CV has doubled: £1bn to £2bn.
View ArticleThree cheers for the balanced defence budget, but wars are not won by...
ALLAN MALLINSON: While it is true, as Mr Hammond said, that the restoration of the public finances is the strategic priority, our enemies do not fight on a system of book-keeping.
View ArticleAfghanistan - the last mile: NATO must think, speak and above all act...
ALLAN MALLINSON: I cannot think of another example in history where we have declared the end of a war at a specific time. We have announced colonial pull-outs, but not the end of a war we embarked on...
View ArticleArmy redundancies are the result of politicians trying to peddle the lie that...
ALLAN MALLINSON: Ministers' zeal to get to grips with the £38bn black hole in the defence budget is not based on empirical research or a reduction in commitments.
View ArticleFalklands anniversary: Thirty years ago today our armed forces bailed out the...
ALLAN MALLINSON: Thirty years ago today, the 74-day occupation of the Falkland Islands ended when the Argentinian commander General Mario Menendez surrendered at Port Stanley.
View ArticleGoodbye to Ursula Brennan, the MoD's not-so-permanent secretary
Departing: Ursula Brennan's tenure as Permanent Under Secretary for Defence coincided with the collapse of the Ministry's finances
View ArticleAs thousands of servicemen are made redundant, how many will be turned away...
ALLAN MALLINSON: I had known that perhaps up to 25% of the homeless were veterans, a disturbing enough statistic. But I had not heard what what my friend went on to tell me.
View ArticleThe Plight of Homeless Ex-Servicemen: Please read this carefully - or not at all
ALLAN MALLINSON asks for facts, about whether homeless ex-Servicemen who fell through the net of the excellent charities, could not get beds in shelters because these were full of Poles and Somalis.
View ArticleOn the eve of Armed Forces Day, we should focus on raising public awareness...
ALLAN MALLINSON: When it began as Veterans’ Day in 2006, I was uneasy about the idea. But three years later the name and focus changed to Armed Forces Day, with those in service centre-stage - how it...
View ArticleArmy Redundancies: Will it be the brightest and best who volunteer?
ALLAN MALLINSON: Senior commanders in the army will have their work cut out to steady the boat after Thursday’s announcement of which cap-badges will face the axe.
View ArticleHammond's New Model Army: A gamble of huge proportions; He must not be...
ALLAN MALLISON:The overall reduction of 20,000 regular troops in the Army represent the loss of three separate but related aspects of fighting power.
View ArticleIn the missile batteries of Leytonstone, the spirit of the Blitz could be...
ALLAN MALLINSON: Putting surface-to-air missiles on top of a tower during the Olympics could increase the chance of a terrorist attack on its residents, lawyers told the High Court yesterday.
View ArticleOn his flight back from Helmand, David Cameron should think about the risks...
ALLAN MALLINSON: No review of commitments or the threat has concluded that we can cut our Army by 20,000. It is merely an aspiration that we can risk doing so by replacing them with reservists.
View Article'One in eight service personnel has attacked someone in a rage after...
ALLAN MALLINSON: “Soldiers struggling to cope with the horrors of war are behind a shocking toll of violence back in Britain," a report by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research has found.
View ArticleThe Syrian uprising is an opportunity for the Israeli Air Force
ALLAN MALLINSON: With the Assad regime imploding, Syria's air defences could be seriously degraded, and Southern Syria may well now be the IAF’s most feasible route into Iran via Iraq.
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