Former army chief says MoD failing troops
General Mike Jackson, who stepped down as head of the army earlier this year, has launched a fierce attack on the government for failing its troops.
In the annual BBC Dimbleby lecture last night, he said the Ministry of Defence (MoD) did not “put the soldier, sailor and airman and their families wholeheartedly in the forefront” of its plans.
Sir Mike attacked the pay and conditions of soldiers and said that all the armed forces lacked the funds they needed to conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also made clear he believed the two deployments were stretching Britain’s armed forces.
His comments came as Tony Blair arrived in Washington to meet US president George Bush. Yesterday’s report from the Iraq Study Group, which called for a rethink on strategy in Iraq, is likely to be high on the agenda.
Among its recommendations were for US troops to leave their combat role by early 2008. However, last night Sir Mike warned against cutting and running, saying that to pull out of either Iraq or Afghanistan before their “proper conclusions would be a disaster”.
Sir Mike, who quit as head of the army in August after 45 years of service, led the army during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has been criticised in the past for failing to stand up to the MoD – however, last night he appeared to get his own back.
He rebuked the department for failing to properly look after soldiers, noting that the £1,000 extra payment a month payment for a private on operations “is hardly an impressive figure”, and saying some accommodation was “still, frankly, shaming”.
He added: “We should be able to provide what is required for soldiers to be fully and properly equipped, thoroughly trained, decently paid and together with their families decently housed. They deserve nothing less.”
Sir Mike said overall, army funding was “inadequate” because it was based on a “virtual world” of MoD predictions rather than real situations. He said: “There is a mismatch therefore between what we do and the resources with which we are given to do it.”
On the question of overstretch – which ministers have always denied – he added: “We could well be asking too much over the long haul in terms of frequency of operational deployment, to say nothing of the conditions of service under which our soldiers undertake this long haul.”
A spokesman for the MoD said last night: “General Jackson is fully entitled, after his distinguished service, to voice his opinion on these important issues.
“While we do not agree with everything Sir Mike has said, we are always the first to recognise – for example in relation to medical services and accommodation – that although we have delivered real improvements, there is more we can do.”
