Does anybody actually believe in the forces anymore?

In Britain there seems to be constant on the news, in the papers and on the net of the armed forces.

We hear about how the Army is struggling with a manpower crisis, outdated equipment and an increasing sense of dissolution coming from both within and outside on their role post cold war.

The RAF is in quite urgent need of replacements for aging fleet of tanker aircraft for AAR and larger numbers of several of the newer aircraft and varients currently on order.

The Navy, although it is not mentioned as often as it is for the other services, is suffering greatly with a shortage of many types of vessel with the number of Destroyers on order too few.

With troops being killed and injured whilst on operations thousands of miles away in the Middle East and a lack of basic body armour being blamed there are many people saying the British Armed Forces should be better equiped and bought back home. But does anybody both in this country and abroad actually believe the British Armed Forces are actually capable of doing today what only 17 years ago in the first Gulf War they did so well with America?

Or have they lost all faith in them?