Israel cares for it soldiers - does Britain ?

Given the 25% cut in defence budget under NuLabour - where our soldiers end up going to war without body armour and keep the "peace" in unprotected Land Rovers, you can help but compare NuLabour attitude to Israel's determination to get its own soldier back who was captured by Hamas with the attitude towards our own service men and women.

Perhaps its because the Israelis have conscription that their nation is so determined to look after their people and get their man back*. The captured soldier is potentially every Israelis son, daughter, or brother or sister. In our country only certain types of people join the military, and most of us live separate lives from them almost never coming into contact with the military ( this is certainly true for most NuLabour ministers and MPs).

A profession armed forces have many advantages, but perhaps connection with the general public and politicians is not one of them. Perhaps that is why they are doing so badly in gaining the resources they need. IMHO.

* I suspect also that the Israeli government has a much better understanding of the outcome of showing weakness towards its sworn enemies, than most western media commentators do.

Update:

See this excellant post on how our soldiers are being short changed.
Also Andy McNabb was on TV last night on This Week ( the prog can be watched again for one week ) making a very similar point on the understanding and support of the military.