Risk-averse Britain may lose stomach for war, warns minister

Shade · Jan 17, 2010

Risk-averse Britain may lose stomach for war, warns minister

Tom Coghlan

Britain is growing so risk-averse that the public may no longer tolerate deployment of the military, the Armed Forces Minister said yesterday.

Bill Rammell warned that in an age of mounting public cynicism and rolling 24-hour news, British governments faced increasing resistance to any use of military power.

â€œWe, sadly, face a series of threats, the nature of which will require the projection of power beyond our borders to protect our national security,â€ he said. â€œMy great fear is that we as a nation will become so risk-averse, cynical and introverted that we will find ourselves in inglorious and impotent isolation by default.â€

His speech to the Institute of Public Policy Research, in London, reflects a growing frustration within the Government and Armed Forces that public tolerance for military operations and media-led cynicism at the motives for British military action are undermining the current effort in Afghanistan.

The minister traced several trends in society that he said were â€œpositiveâ€, but which made it increasingly difficult for governments to deploy troops in support of Britain's interests.

â€œFirst, the decline of deference and the growth in mistrust of those in authority, which challenge government and military decision-making. Second, the 24/7 media and the new information age, which brings with it the demand for a different kind of communication between the Government and the public about military operations. Third, a freedom-of-information culture, which asserts that everything known to the State should be in the public domain without considering the impact of this on government's ability to act in our best interest.â€

Mr Rammell said that this could have positive consequences, such as the practice of holding inquests into the deaths of all British soldiers killed.

â€œFamilies are more assertive in seeking information, wanting to know why a death has occurred and in challenging authority, often calling for an independent assessment of the circumstances surrounding their loved one's death ... Through this, the MoD can continue to improve the way it deals with inquests [and] learn lessons that may help to prevent future deaths.â€

However, he said that where the Government withheld information for reasons of operational security, this was often interpreted by the media and public as evasiveness. He also said that increasing public cynicism threatened to undermine the ability of British Forces to win in Afghanistan.

â€œMilitary operations and the money required to pay for defence rely on the willingness of the public to support the policies of the Government ... Our adversaries, particularly those who cannot match our military, will attempt to outlast us and hope to sap our support at home. This is particularly true of the foe we face in Afghanistan.â€

Death and injury to British Forces were, Mr Rammell said, an inevitable consequence of deploying troops, and the debate over the equipment for troops sometimes lost sight of this.

â€œYes, we should enhance the capabilities [of equipment] wherever possible,â€ he said. â€œBut the public needs to accept that the battlefield is a uniquely dangerous and uncertain environment ... In counter-insurgency warfare, as in Afghanistan, you have to get out of the Chinooks and the Mastiffs, sometimes patrolling on foot and among the people ... The only way to protect our troops completely is, bluntly, not to deploy them in the first place.â€
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Let cynicism ring.

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Risk-averse Britain may lose stomach for war, warns minister

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