Bush didn't create the military
overstretch, but he did Campaign on fixing it, and instead has allowed it to worsen.
"I'm not sure making a simple distinction between stretch and
overstretch is helpful."
However, Britain is by no means alone in its military
overstretch. The US, France, Sweden and Norway are all close to their limits of what they can provide, if not beyond their qualitative capacity.
Military chiefs concede that troops were stretched but denied there was any "
overstretch" even though many more troops were failing to get the recommended rest between operations.
DEFENCE chiefs insisted again yesterday that British forces were not
overstretched but admitted it was "very hard to say" how close that point now was.
In the West Midlands, Kensington found that 25 per cent of respondents looking to buy a home were worried about being financially
overstretched.
So pervasive was the view of America's collapse that it stretched into the 1980s, reaching full flower in Yale professor Paul Kennedy's bestseller, The Decline and Fall of the Great Powers, which argued that because of imperial "
overstretch" the United States was headed the way of the Habsburg, Spanish, and British empires--into the rubbish heap of history.
Jill Hyndman, who is just 4ft 9in, developed a tendon injury in her right arm because she had to
overstretch by nine inches.
As the military push to wipe out the al Qaida network moved outside Afghanistan for the first time, experts predict another major overseas commitment could lead to ``serious problems'' of
overstretch.
But Your Mortgage editor Paula John has warned people not to
overstretch themselves and to think carefully before investing in property they intended to rent out.
MoD permanent secretary Bill Jeffrey told the Commons defence committee: "The word
overstretch implies that what we are doing now is not sustainable.
Conservative Deputy Leader Mr Peter Lilley reiterated his party's support for the allied air attacks, but warned of possible "
overstretch" for British troops.