Report says British armed forces "overstretched"

    LONDON, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The British Armed Forces are "overstretched" by the long-running operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report released on Monday.

    "The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have seriously diminished the ability of the Armed Forces to meet future challenges," said the report by Demos, a London-based think-tank.

    With such pressures affecting the forces, the current situation is "unsustainable -- financially, organizationally, operationally and in terms of military-society relations," said the report.

    "British Armed Forces need a sustained period of time -- perhaps a decade -- to recover from the intensity of operations undertaken since 2000," Demos said.

    According to the report, in a time of turbulence and risk, British Armed Forces are on a dangerously unsustainable course, and the men and women of the armed forces are being let down by under-investment. The armed forces have an unfocused brief, insufficiently linked to the threats of the future, and the nation itself is divorced from them and their needs.

    Stretched budgets remain tied up in big-ticket, high-profile hardware while the "software," the men and women who make up the armed forces are overlooked. Unless pay, terms, housing, training and recruitment are sufficiently resourced, the future for the armed forces looks bleak, the report said.

    "Despite sterling service in Iraq and Afghanistan, UK armed forces are overstretched, under-resourced and under tremendous organizational strain," said the report's authors, Timothy Edmunds, senior lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Bristol, and Professor Anthony Forster of Durham University.

    "It is time for a new, pragmatic and public debate on UK defence; one that is honest about current economic, organizational and societal constraints. It will require a more open-minded and flexible approach from senior military commanders; and a willingness on the part of the government to face up to the contradictions that lie at the heart of British defence policy," they said.