Secret Squirrel Says Britain Should Form A True National Guard Reserve.

Secret Squirrel has perked up his ears and heard of the sad sorry state Olympic Security is at.Imagine Olympic Security, simply security for an event such as The Olympics. Of course this was never seen as necessary in earlier years, but due to recent activities and events round and about the world, invasions,wars and what have we had our government do, we now require this. The Olympics requires security.More security, greater security.And, does Britain and the British people NOT require the self same, security? Indeed it does, but what has actually occurred, revealed by the sad sorry state of the Olympics, the stress,imagine,stress, it is now placing,placing, on Britain's military!Stress!Imagine stress,manpower stress,stretching resources,stretching manpower, a thing as ridiculous as the Olympics! Imagine, it never stressed anybody else, any other nation,no, it stresses Britain, only Britain.Sad state of affairs,sorry state of affairs, ridiculous state of affairs. The military is being stressed, stressed also,by evidently a short supply of manpower, imagine, THE MILITARY!The very thought of something like this years back would bring hearty guffaws in  each and every Old Boys Club round and about the nation,Parliament would have it's walls shake with the laughter such a mention would produce,people would fall out of pubs for the laughing.But face it, it's just not funny.

Well let's look at the overview of things....


British Military OVERVIEW (as at early 2012)

Regular Forces    
Royal Navy     35,430 (includes 7,500 Royal Marines)
Army     101,300
Royal Air Force     40,090
   
Total Regular Forces    

176,810 (excludes approximately 3,800 Gurkhas and approximately 2,040 Full Time Reserve Service (FTRS) personnel)
   
Regular Reserves    
Volunteer Reserves     37,600
Cadet Forces     133,000 - Sea Cadets -14,000,  Army Cadets - 75,800,  Air Training Corps - 43,000
   
MoD Civilians     85,000

Well now, look at the army.Do you realize that actual FIGHTING men are actually half of the figure, the rest are various support,administration as it were!The British military is sadly drawn down.Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has confirmed that an additional 3,500 military personnel will be deployed as part of the security arrangements for the 2012 Olympic Games.

This will bring the total number of military personnel, from all three Services and including reservists, contributing to the safety and security of the Games to 17,000.And they also state, that this drains,taxes,strains...THE MILITARY.In short as it were, they're taken short, all round and about.

Well it figures.Britain is in a sad sorry state.What thence needs be done,since the military is being constantly reduced, is Britain must increase actual reserves,then,form a concentrated effort to create and evolve an actual real National Guard,or Home Guard,the Part Time Soldier, trained for all events really, and utilized as such, and ready for call-up for various crisis and events...such as flood relief etc on the home front, assistance in whatever disaster as needed, ready for call-up such as is being done for Olympic Security, and,of course, if necessary foreign defences,such as the Falklands or Gibraltar,and various foreign wars or so called policing and peace keeping activities.As presently configured the reserves are really only geared to military activities. Of course, the Navy,a Navy, must be maintained, along with an Air Force,and here also a working functional reserve force must be created but also yet trained  for uses in national emergencies and disasters. Of course this is along lines originally envisaged and actually at one time, so done in America, The National Guard, up until recently when the Americans simply used them as active troops.Of course we now see America as extremely disorganized internally with little or no help for it's citizenry as they suffer from tornadoes,hurricanes floods and whatever disasters the constantly suffer from, they now being left mostly to their own devices.We see in America National Guard units played a major role in providing security and assisting recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, in September 2005.

In January and February 2007, National Guard troops from 8 states were activated to go help shovel snow, drop hay for starving cattle, deliver food and necessities to stranded people in their houses, and help control traffic and rescue stranded motorists in blizzards dropping feet of snow across that country.

 What we should be doing, in Britain, is form a definite National Guard, reservists, functioning as the National Guard in America actually used to. It worked, unquestionably it worked, and it will work for us all round.