Is Con Coughlin Finally Getting The Point?

Almost certainly not.

Throughout the build-up to the Iraq war, hardly a word was uttered in public by Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, then head of the British Armed Forces, even though there was considerable disquiet - some would say outright hostility - among the military to British participation in the invasion of Iraq.

More is the pity that they never said anything, then.

This week's remarks by Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, current head of the Armed Forces, that Britain cannot continue to fight two wars at once, suggest the code of omerta long observed between the military and its political masters is rapidly unravelling.

Not before time. Of course "Britain cannot continue to fight two wars at once". One among the numerous reasons why we should end them both forthwith.

Sir Jock, like many other senior officers, has been concerned for some time that Britain's Armed Forces simply do not have the resources to sustain their current levels of deployment, and has no doubt been arguing this point tirelessly within Whitehall.

No doubt. The solution, of course, is to end the deployments, pointless and indeed downright counterproductive that they are.

The Labour party has no real understanding of how the military works, is embarrassed that Britain is fighting wars on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and is ambivalent about whether British troops should be there in the first place.

Would that those second two were true, although of course the Government is not, nor does it really have anything to do with, the Labour Party. Coughlin is probably thinking of Sir Jock Stirrup, who certainly does have a "real understanding of how the military works", and doubtless is "embarrassed that Britain is fighting wars on two fronts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and about whether British troops should be there in the first place".

Until politicians of all persuasions wake up to the fact that we are asking too much of our limited military resources, we can expect a great deal more plain speaking from the top brass.

Here's hoping.

What Coughlin undoubtedly wants is huge transfers of money from public services, private pockets or both into the fighting of his and his fellow-Crazies' endless wars. But I doubt that the military top brass, never mind the rank and file, want any such thing. Knowing what war is like, they are extremely averse to it if at all avoidable, like Jim Webb or Jacques Chirac (old brothers in arms of John McCain are aghast at his views on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on bombing Iran, on torture, and on veterans' issues).

I for one would love them to say so, and for our Forces to bring themselves home in such a way that Brown, Blair, Cameron and the rest would only find out when they switched on their televisions and saw the triumphant marching through the cheering, flag-waving crowds. Without a shot's needing to be fired, our rotten and decadent, blood-thirsty but battle-cowardly Political Class would be brought crashing to the ground.

Now that really would be the defence of this Realm.