Speaking today at the House of Commons, British Prime Minister David Cameron conceded that the major cuts in military spending meant that the nation could no longer engage in massive Iraq-style occupations.
At the same time, One of these occupations could be “brigade-level,” involving 6,500 troops, while they could also launch two smaller occupations at the same time. The reports also indicate that the military can engage in a single 30,000 soldier occupation, but only for a limited time and with significant advanced notice.
During the campaign, Cameron made much of ensuring Britain’s ability to launch major wars abroad, but the realities of the nation’s budget crisis have forced him to back off this position and agree to cuts once thought unthinkable. The US has also warned Britain against cuts.
Incredible as it may seem, Britain’s status as a major military aggressor seems to be coming to an end in the wake of the election of a hawkish new prime minister, and based pretty much exclusively on the sheer unaffordability of its imperial ambitions.
As long as Britain acts like a good colony and occupies whoever their masters in Washington tell them to then everything will be ok!
In practice, this looks like the end of British pretensions of "superpower's no.1 poodle" status, with the pill being softened to assuage the military and the Tory "nasties". Amusingly, the very people who want to use British troops as cannon fodder have caused the problem! Wall St's attack on the euro has had a spin-off effect on Britain and, 10 years and two wars later, the "British street" is fed up with military adventures. This is not a joke, but the current supremo of the British military is … Sir Jock Stirrup!
Great post! I'd love to see Britain tell Washington no to any more overseas adventures. Not one drop of British blood should have ever been spilled just so the CIA can have an empire.
Why doesn't Britain just occupy itself? Why doesn't the British army just occupy Britain?
Well if this scumbag coalition government continues down its current route then it is going to have to occupy Wales, Scotland and maybe, just maybe, Northern Ireland to stop them declaring independence. and reducing England to a fourth-rate power!