Market day in Hythe, Hampshire: portrait of Horatio Nelson on a pub sign
The Special Features section of the Navy News (the Royal Navy's website) lists 4 articles, which unintentionally highlight the service's change in mission from the able defender of national glories to a current supporting role in Colonel Blimp style re-enactments of the same.
Two articles deal with the Battle of the Atlantic (World War II) and Horatio Nelson (the Napoleonic Wars); two others deal with the Falklands Conflict (still not a war!) and Operation Telic, which for the 99% of the world's population who may not know, was the code name for the Royal Navy's invasion of Iraq.
The latter is billed on the website as the largest British armada since the Falklands fleet. Let's put aside the interesting use of the word armada: surely the name of the invasion fleet from another country, which -ahem- failed spectacularly in its mission. Let's focus instead on the breath-taking dimunition in role of a historied institution: how are the mighty fallen!
http://www.navynews.co.uk/features.asp
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