Soggy j u-j u
Sir: What joy it gave this retired naval figure of modest rank to see dear Colonel Blimp on the cover of your 16 June issue. If, as Mr Urban maintains CA farewell to arms'), there is no longer a threat from the East, whence is now the threat? What exactly do we want to defend? Do 'foreign commitments' still exist? Any 'bush fires' to put out? Most important, what are we willing to pay?
Most people want to defend no more than their comfortable way of life. Most would agree that there is more immediate a threat from an IRA bomb than from a nuclear missile. So, if there is no longer a conventional military threat, why play about with 10 per cent cuts in conventional military forces? Why not gradually adapt the forces to less conventional threats? Perhaps men would more willingly enlist in forces with an obvious purpose.
If we can ever see clearly enough to distinguish what — if anything — threatens us, perhaps we can in time devise some sure and novel protection. If we can't — or won't — pay for such protection, then why not disarm and become another Costa Rica?
However, proposals for cuts will be put forward by ministers and mandarins. Even they may not prevail; nor will common sense. The 'Political Imperative' — dread words, as Mr Arnold would observe — in Whitehall will operate and, 'at the end of the day', what will emerge but that beloved ju-ju, the soggy British compromise? John Templeton-Cotill
Le Moulin de Fontvive, Ribas 30290, Laudun, France
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