Finnish Defence Forces Should Return to Basics -Senior Official

STT Finnish Government News, Marco Krogars, the director general of the Finnish defence ministry's administration policy department, writes in the latest issue of military journal Sotilasaikakauslehti that the Defence Forces should focus on basics such as building and maintaining the ability to undertake military and crisis management operations. 
 
Mr Krogars questions the utility of pouring tens of millions of euros into information processing systems. “Will the processing bring about enough added value into the destructive power of our weapons systems to make the investment truly worthwhile?” Mr Krogars asked. 
 
Referring to the brass lions that signify ranks above colonel in the Finnish army and air force, Mr Krogars added that a real problem would arise if the number of “salon lions” grew too much among the higher echelons of the military hierarchy. 
 
“The impression that war is about to leave the toolbox of the civilised world is guaranteed to be false. Further, suggestions that war would have become fundamentally cleaner have been shot down in Iraq as well as in the world's other crisis spots.” 
 
“Human energy and other resources that we sacrifice in any – however slightly – secondary action will be taken away from the military core.”