UK Must Prepare for Public Sacrifices for War, British Army Chief Warns

Defending the UK will require sacrifices from its citizens, and the country’s leaders will soon have a “frank conversation” with the public about it.

The British publication BFBS Forces News reported this, citing a speech by Chief of the General Staff Gen. Sir Roly Walker to troops of the UK’s 1st Division at Catterick Garrison.

The general said that “warfare” had returned to the national consciousness and that the days when the country could avoid thinking about involvement in war were over.

“You didn’t know this, but our nation is going to need you. There was a time that our nation didn’t want to think of a time when it would need its soldiers to fight in a war. But as anyone who is studying the trajectory of world affairs, and the geopolitical system within which our nation sits and thrives, will realise there is extreme jeopardy in the world at the moment. And the business of soldiering is coming back into the nation’s psyche.

“Indeed very soon, the political leaders of this country will start to have a frank conversation with the citizens of this country, about just what is going on and where the risk lies, and what the nation must need to be prepared to do. They need to understand what is going on in the world of defence and security and why now appears to be a very dangerous time.

“They’re going to try and explain to our citizens that our citizens have got to consent to sacrifices to prioritise defence and security. And then, they’re going to ask those citizens, for whom we are not necessarily at the front of their mind, that they too need to play a part in the defence and security of this country.

“They need to understand what we do for them, they need to consent to allow us to do that – which means sacrifices by them – and ultimately, we’re going to need them to back us, to back you, to do the one thing that you do, that nobody else gets to do, and that is to take the fight to the enemy.

“There is no other environment to my mind where the burden of fighting is placed squarely on the shoulders of our most inexperienced and junior soldiers, than in our land forces. And I’m looking at you because it’s on you that the defence of this nation will rest, if ultimately, you are called to fight,” Gen. Sir Roly Walker stated in his full speech.

The general’s remarks came amid a new poll in which nearly half of British respondents said they would under no circumstances be willing to take up arms and fight for their country.

Discussing one of the key dilemmas — how to fund defense in line with the threats facing the UK — Gen. Walker warned that sacrifices would be necessary and that politicians would have to explain this to the public.

Although the poll found that nearly half of Britons were unwilling to fight, it also showed that more than half of the population supported increasing defense spending.

Among those who supported an increase, 37% said it should be funded by reallocating money from other areas of the state budget, while 36% supported raising overall taxes.

In early September, the UK suspended training exercises involving 90 or more service members because the Ministry of Defence lacked funding.

Army units were ordered to immediately halt “collective training” unless they were preparing to deploy on an operational mission. As a result, sources said, soldiers were effectively left without work.

Service members will continue training in small groups, practicing basic skills including driving, physical fitness, weapons handling and drone operations. However, company-level exercises, which typically involve 90 to 120 troops, as well as battlegroup exercises involving several hundred personnel, have been significantly reduced.

The Royal Navy and Royal Air Force were also ordered to cut training to save money, although the impact on them will be less significant.