When it comes to our Special Forces, we should take a leaf out of America's book
The threat to this country is probably at its highest since the Cold War – if not higher – with the added threats from terrorists, bad actors and those who want to harm our very way of life.
Therefore, it must make complete sense to protect those who protect us, most especially our Special Forces, security services and our military.
This is something the Americans get right.
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth spoke recently at the US Special Operations Forces (SOF) week with such clarity, dignity and support for US special forces that you could hardly believe he is the same person who leaked his Signal account of attacks on the Houthis to the world, or even the person in charge of the most powerful military machine on the planet.
At the same time, UK Special Forces are being scrutinised for their actions on dangerous deployments in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan – and having their identities splashed all over the internet.
This must stop lest their strategic impact be diminished.
Respect and reverence in everyday life
Americans respect and treasure their military, whereas the British approach is most ably summed up by Rudyard Kipling's poem, Tommy this an' Tommy that.
Soldiers get free access to business class lounges in the US and board the aircraft first. Everyone says "thank you for your service".
Almost the opposite is true in this country – we are even told not to wear uniform in public. Regiments are barred from taking tanks to village shows for fear of offending a small minority.
If Hegseth can realise that Special Forces need to operate in the shadows and do things that ordinary humans cannot imagine in order to "make America safe again", why on earth are we hounding the very people who have prevented numerous 7/7s and saved the lives of so many, not just Brits, in far-flung corners of the globe?
A strategic and diplomatic powerhouse
The Americans know, as did David Stirling, the founder of the SAS, that these warriors can have a strategic impact that a thousand tanks and fighter jets never can.
Pound for pound, our Special Forces are the best investment the British taxpayers make for the security of this country.
Hegseth also stated how important British SF have been since Special Operations Executive missions with the US, from World War Two to this very day.
Our Special Forces are the number one military ask, a group of elite soldiers the president of the US always wants. He knows they are the best, and they help to keep us as the US's closest ally.
Morale in the US Special Forces is sky high, thanks to determined support from POTUS and the Secretary of Defence. Conversely, morale in UK SF is sagging.
It is about time our current crop of leaders realise the importance of these military icons and fully support the very people who will always take a bullet for them.
The great man Winston Churchill is not around, sadly, when we really need him again, but his epitaph for our SF should ring constantly in the ears of our politicians, like the tinnitus does for most of us who have dodged the enemies' bullets.
"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."
Retired Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon is a former commander of the UK Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defence Regiment
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