TONY Blair's stock shot up as he proved to be the western leader with the most nerve when doubts arose last year over whether NATO's air war alone would force bloody Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic out of Kosovo.

And the Prime Minister is mighty lucky that the bombs and missiles did the job - when leaked Ministry of Defence reports disclosed yesterday that British troops could have gone into a ground war in Kosovo with faulty guns, broken radios and similarly shoddy equipment.

Rather than basking in acclaim, had it come to a fight, Mr Blair might by now be hounded out of office in shame as the bodies of let-down soldiers came home.

But the fact that our forces were actually sent into Kosovo after the Serb pull-out so seriously ill-equipped for actual conflict is a huge scandal in any case.

When they sign up, our soldiers accept that they may have to put their lives at risk.

But they have every right to expect that their lives are not put recklessly at risk because the government has not given them the means to fight or defend themselves.

And just how badly our forces in Kosovo were betrayed is shown up by the disclosures that many had to borrow guns that worked and others were forced to buy vital navigation equipment and even beds to sleep on.

This may not be all the present government's fault, for ever since the end of the Cold War a decade ago there has been a continuum of cuts in defence spending.

But it is manifest from this scandal that they have gone too deep for our forces to be able to do the job expected of them - to the disgraceful extent that their lives could be needlessly squandered.

Mr Blair must thank his lucky stars that Milosevic lost his nerve before he did and did not bring home this brutal truth in body bags.

He must immediately cease trying to get defence on the cheap.

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