When you can't meet your own standards, lower your standards — it's not solely the American Rule

royal marines paraded by their iranian captors

(News the other day that the British Defense Minister had announced that his country would be forced to stop its civilian evacuation efforts in Kabul once the U.S, withdrew its troops prompted me to retrieve from my draft folder this article I’d begun, but set aside. Where is the British Army, and why can’t it maintain its own military operations? Here are some news items, all related, that may explain where they’ve gone.

And where we’re going. Most of what’s happened to Britain’s military is happening to ours and the possible exception: our military industrial complex is keeping up arms production as fast as we can give away our weapons to terrorists, is useless without the will to use our strength. Which we no longer have.)

RAF drops rejection rate by 20%

RAF is 'dropping its standards to get recruits' as rejection rate falls by 20% over last five years
RAF chiefs are rejecting fewer applicants than five years ago, leading to fears the Air Force might be lowering its standards to keep recruitment numbers up.
The RAF has long been famous for having the strictest recruitment policy in the British military, rejecting more applicants than the Army and the Navy.
In the past, even having a visible tattoo was a bar to joining the Air Force.
But latest Ministry of Defence figures show that over the past five years, its rejection rate has fallen by 20 percentage points.
Critics say this has coincided with all three forces facing a crisis over recruitment, and claim standards have been lowered to get less-able applicants through the vetting process.
The data, lodged in the House of Commons library, shows that in 2015/16, there were 22,107 applications at the RAF, with 13,830 being rejected – a rejection rate of 62.6 per cent.
But in 2019/20, there were 32,634 applications, of which 13,387 were turned away – a rejection rate of 41 per cent.
The RAF is facing a personnel shortage, according to MoD figures released earlier this year. They showed that there should be 31,869 airmen and women, but there are only 29,853.
Rejection rates at the Royal Navy over the past five years have fallen from 42.6 per cent to 29.4 per cent, and at the Army from 32.3 to 28.2 per cent.
Former Tory MP and ex-Army colonel Patrick Mercer said: ‘The RAF, like the Army and Navy, have faced a recruitment crisis, and a drop in numbers, so they have reduced their rejection rates. Also, in some cases, they have massaged their figures to allow women into the RAF, who may not be as fit as men.

Interesting but the might be the most alarming takeaway from the article:

And what you have to appreciate is that at the RAF, there are very few people flying planes now, so they don’t have to make it so rigorous if you are going to be flying drones from a room.’

And this, from a year ago: Britain spent so much on its 2 new carriers that it can’t afford planes or escort ships

This collapse of the British military has been going on for decades, so I guess we might say it’s a matter of tradition now. In 2007, after the Navy had stood helplessly by white Iranian speedboats captured two of their ships, James Lewis penned this, on Britain’s loss of will: British Military Hollowed Out

It hurts to say it, but the Royal Navy has become an object of pity among those of us who admire what Britain used to be and do: Like standing against the Nazi onslaught, abolishing slavery around the world, and yes, bringing civilized government to brutish and sadistic regions of the world, which had no acquaintance with simple decency among holders of power before that time.
….
Today, the Royal Navy is slated to be cut in half, and political correctness has turned Britain into a basket case. It is tragic.

But of course, the rot isn’t confined to our former colonial rulers: