Personally think the strength of the british army is in the quality of it's soldiers and not the funding it receives - because let's face it, our army has never had enough money, most armies never do unless someone is planning on invading with it... As for risking your life to enforce policy you don't agree with.. welcome to the police force, it's the same thing mate, admittedly less risk, but still an increasing risk with global terrorism blah blah blah, but honestly the most frustrating thing is enforcing policies that are just plain stupid that have been decided upon by the govt.

Be carefull of saying stuff like the special forces have sorted it all too, as good as they are, it's the army, navy, airforce and marines as a whole who are doing it day in day out and sorting it. They are all very professional well trained discplined soldiers, and it is this that is stopping us losing more to the conflicts, simply the way they "police" as an occupying force is something a lot of armies could learn from.

ynwa - Is there still much risk to PSNI then? Obviously it's all calmed down a fair bit over the years, just wondering how much is still happening over there.. do the officers still need the PPW's or is it just something that is carried over?