While it is well known that American army units in Iraq have had to resort to cannibalising armor for their vehicles, what isn't as well known is that British units are in
even worse shape.
In its report, the National Audit Office warned that during the Iraq War - which involved 45,000 British troops at its height - the Army had resorted to "cannibalising" parts and equipment from units that were not deployed.
It gets worse.
More than a third of the British military forces are experiencing serious weaknesses and would struggle to go on operations within the time set by planners, a report from the National Audit Office (NAO) said on Wednesday.
The government's commitments abroad have used up a vast amount of equipment and led to serious curtailment of training, the report said.
Under the Ministry of Defense (MoD) traffic light system, overall readiness of the forces for operations is now "amber", meaning that there are serious shortcomings, one level below "red" or "critical".
Among the chief criticisms in the report published on Wednesday is the practice of "cannibalization", whereby equipment is plundered for spare parts. It has become so prevalent that the instances of ships being raided for spare parts have risen from five a month to 30.
Almost a quarter of Challenger 2 tanks and a third of the Royal Artillery's AS90 guns had to be cannibalized to make the rest of the force operational for Iraq, the report said.
The MoD was also "unable to sustain the majority of its helicopter fleets" beyond current peacetime activity "without heavy cannibalization of equipment".
[...]
If this keeps up both the American and British military will be so degraded that we'll be unable to meet the challenge of an actual threat.
Bin Laden will have achieved his goals.