If the UK can put boots on the ground in Gaza, why can't they do the same in Ukraine?

Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, former Commanding Officer 1st Royal Tank Regiment, writes that if the UK can put boots on the ground in Gaza, they can do the same in Ukraine.

The news that UK troops may be involved in the efforts to get lifesaving humanitarian aid into Gaza on the one hand is hugely encouraging and on the other a bit of a concern.

It is well documented over recent weeks that the lack of investment in UK Armed Forces since the Cold War has been manifestly poor and left us with a British military barely able to defend these islands let alone project power around the globe.

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Nobody can be unmoved by the devastation in Gaza caused by the Hamas attacks on Israel on 07 Oct 23, and the subsequent civilian deaths in the operation to eliminate Hamas, which no right-minded person would oppose.

But the scale of human deprivation and slaughter in Gaza is on a biblical scale and anything the UK can do to elevate civilian suffering by enabling aid to the 2.2 million starving population must be done with gusto.

In the Royal Marines, we have the perfect troops to conduct this type of operation in the Littoral, termed 'wet boots'.

Equally adept on the high seas, in the shallows or on the beaches, the Marines train for this type of operation and are equipped to do it.

They are probably more suited to humanitarian operations than almost anybody else, with their generally intelligent and sympathetic approach to getting aid to those who need it in war zones.

At the same time, there is war in Europe which is looking to spread westwards and directly affect the security of the UK.

The irony that the UK Government is considering putting British "boots on the ground" in Gaza, where they could be caught in the crossfire between Hamas and the IDF, but are not prepared to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to stop Putin, who threats the UK with almost daily nuclear attack, is unexplainable, except perhaps as a political expedient to calm the left and the pro-Palestinian protest movement?

Is it not extraordinary that we'll also shoot down Iranian drones aimed at Israeli civilians, but not Russian drones aimed at Ukrainian civilians?!

However disturbing the screens are in Gaza, the conflict in the Middle East is unlikely to directly threaten the security of the UK.

Whereas the war in Ukraine and Putin positioning nuclear weapons in Belarus certainly does.  

No doubt the 'Stop the War' crew would support UK troops to Gaza, not least that this would deflect them from strengthening Ukraine's ability to hold the Russians, who these protestors seem to favour rather more than us?

Once again it's: "Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' 'Chuck him out, the brute!' But it's 'Saviour of 'is country', when the guns begin to shoot."

The threat to this country is the highest since the end of the Cold War and both political parties at the moment seem to think that 2.5% of GDP will hold the Russians, sort out the Gaza conflict, stop terror attacks, stop the floods and drive trucks and trains when others want a pay rise?

Of course, the military can and should do all this, but it takes much more resources and empathy which current political leaders seem to be not prepared to give.

Get the defence of the UK wrong by underinvestment and 'under' caring and everything else vexing us at the moment could become horrifically irrelevant.