British Forces since 2000

[IronDuke99]

The British Army (and Royal Marines) faces the problem that on the one hand large scale armoured battle is back on the agenda after years of counter insurgency stuff, because some members of NATO (and some of the EU, mainly the same nations) seem to want to confront Russia in her own -for example- Baltic backyard while there is a big public unwillingness to put troops on the ground after long -hardly winning- wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (in my own view the west lost in Afghanistan as soon as we set a rough date to withdraw).

Can the West defeat the IS in the middle east just from the air and with special forces? Well history must make us doubt this, especially when so many Western nations have a, relatively small, IS 'fifth column' within their own Muslim populations.

Now there is the modern military conundrum...