Posted on 09/17/2016 11:36:27 AM PDT by NRx
The Suez Crisis in ‘56 ended a lot of fantasies. That said, they deserve credit for the Malay Counterinsurgency from ‘48 to ‘60, even though that was a broader Commonwealth effort.
That is not a small point.
As this link shows, in 1900 the situation was almost the reverse of today.
In 1900 Brits spent about what we do today, 4% of GDP on defense, while back then we spent less than 1% of US GDP on defense.
Today while we spend about 4% on defense, Brits spend barely 2%.
Low government spending and low taxes kept the US economy booming in 1900.
Today, not so much.
Agree completely. My career was spent doing international business and I was always grateful for the Empire that taught the world how to trade. Besides making our inherited language the lingua franca of commerce, all the forms of banking, insurance, and law that have made global trade possible were birthed in the crowded streets of London. The British had their flaws, but what a different world we’d be in if any other power ruled the waves.
Well of course not, not when the most popular birth name in the UK is Muhammad.
Or maybe this is some strange strategy of area denial. Oy, lets allow all these filthy invaders in, and then no one will want this ravaged land.
They couldn’t have defended the country during WW2, especially after Dunkirk.
From the article:
“The former Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell said there was nothing the UK could do after Brexit to protect Nato from the potentially damaging effect of an EU army.
“The peer, who is a member of the UK parliamentary delegation to the Nato assembly, said: “Even as a fervent European, I regard the creation of a European army as a deeply damaging, long-term threat to Nato.”
“The cornerstone of European defence is Nato, of which the United States is the most senior partner contributing 75% of the budget of the alliance. The creation of a European army will only encourage isolationists in the United States to argue that Europe should be responsible for its own defence.”
Translation: Well, now, we can’t have the US leave the NATO alliance. I mean, what the hey, they’re paying 75% of the cost of the defense budgets for all of the European members. After all, Europeans shouldn’t have to bear the burden of their own defense. Let those damn yanks continue to kick in their blood and treasure around the world on all our benefit. Its what the “leader of the free world” is supposed to do. Without complaint, or course.
The Germans needed air superiority to launch a successful invasion, and they failed to achieve that in the Battle of Britain.
Never mind Russia! Britain has so gutted her military, she could not resist an attack by Luxemburg
The UK has approximately 120 nuclear warheads on its Trident missiles, which are accurate to within a few feet. Any one of these can reach Luxemborg or, for that matter, St. Petersburg.
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