YP Letters: No defence as bean counters cripple our forces

AS our politicians rattle their collective sabres over Syria, in the real world our armed forces are being diminished to a point where they fail to be able to function.

The Ministry of Defence is looking to reduce the Royal Marines by 200 posts, an organisation that has performed great deeds on many tours of Afghanistan. All are being sacrificed, as is the norm following conflict, to appease the bean counters sitting in their safe offices in Whitehall.

The Marines are being sacrificed to cover for the stupid decisions made by the senior officers in the Navy in their stupid purchase of the two aircraft carriers that to be truthful are too expensive and essentially obsolete in a changing military capable world.

To cover up for these expensive and demanding, in resources terms, vessels, the Army is being restricted in its training and equipment. Less and less trained manpower means less capable defence for the UK.

In short, we have a smaller 
and less able force crippled by poor procurement and direction from the top but again, as always, the people who suffer for this 
are the rank and file servicemen and women, not the idiots that made the mistakes in the first place.