I thought most of our tanks were in bits in warehouses somewhere, or was that the apaches?

Most probably both, sadly.

I do remember being on an RAF base years ago. It was a few years after we had sold the design of the Harrier to the yanks. We then bought some new Harrier planes. The chief engineer was standing in the hanger swearing like a trooper. None of our kit would fit onto the plane as the yanks had changed the mounting points (so the story went).

Anyway, the only thing he could attach to Harrier were good old fashioned iron bombs. He was saying it had been like that for many months too :o Makes you wonder just how bad our kit is :(

Especially when you meet some of our foot soldiers, I commented that they seemed to have some nice stuff. About 5 of them just looked up at me with the expressions "You should not have said that". They then went on to show me that all the nice stuff were things they had bought. Boots, cooking stove, pans, cutlery, flashlights etc etc :mad:

Sadly that's the way, if you want decent kit, you buy your own.

Was always that way, my grandfather recollects stories in WW2 in the desert about the US servicemen having all the good stuff and home comforts.

If Russia wants to switch off the gas taps the whole of Europe will face an energy crisis with all gas/oil prices going throught the roof. The mid east will benefit from massive oil prices and there will probably be a mini european rescession. It would harm russia as well but ultimately the elite would still be fine and the general population of russia has always suffered anyway.
The other option is to help Iranians or north korea with their nuclear programs. RUssia holds the bulk of the cards in this game.

It was Georgia if I recall properly......or maybe Belarus, anyway it was bad!