Zhukov was by all accounts an excellent wartime commander, albeit one who worried about casualty counts only to the degree that they affected battle readiness.

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In particular, they will be haggling over the criteria for battle-readiness which all the big countries want to establish as a way of encouraging more sensible defence spending.

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The army, in particular, is overstretched, and the navy is being forced to reduce the battle-readiness of some ships to concentrate men and equipment in those on front-line duty.

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But Nick Clegg did highlight his party's differences and flag up his readiness to do battle on some red-line issues.

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That readiness to do battle on the basis of markets, not ideology, should make Mr McCarthy a useful successor to Sir Howard.

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"Additionally coalition forces will realign battle space as necessary based on the composition of the coalition, the readiness of the Iraqi security forces and the threat situation, " Matern said.

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