The UK has just cut it's defence spending to the point where we have just made a deal to share resources with the French (if your not aware the UK and the French are not exactly best buddies). The cuts are so extreme that the UK does not even have a single operational aircraft carrier. Do you think Europe would have made such drastic cuts if the US didn't pump so much into defence?
No I do not. And, I truly believe that the time that the US can have troops and bases here, there and everywhere in the world has passed. We need to learn how to leave a country after a war.
We actualy have HMS Illustrious still in service and HMS Ark Royal is due to be decomed at the end of the year We do have 2 new Ships under construction HMS Queen Elizabeth due in 2020 and HMS Prince of Wales 2023 They will be the largest warships ever built for the Royal Navy The French only have one aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle The idea is that we and the French will allways have at least one available allowing one to be in for refits etc (sounds good LOL) Personaly I think it is the 1st step on the road to a unified European Armed Forces (Air/Sea/Land)
Would seem to cut down on costs so from that view point yes But then you begin to examin it in detail LOL All the different languages and the different wepon systems so the cost then goes way back up as you try to rectify that LOL Then the BIG question who runs the show LOL I can just see the outcry here if a German or a Frenchman was placed in overall command Then there is the International aspect of it, some countries would have a total hissy fit if they seen German troops on the march again (long memories) specialy in the former Soviet Union and some of the other easten countries. Try looking at it like this David a combined North American armed forces made up of the following USA Belize Costa Rica Dominica Dominican Republic El Salvador Grenada Guatemala Haiti Honduras Jamaica Mexico Nicaragua Panama Trinidad and Tobago Plus a few others LOL
This whole thread is scary to me. Just how much do other countries worldwide really depend on U.S. defense? I totally agree with Stu. We can't be world "policemen". Get in and get out. David, you ask an excellent question and I think DeOrc gave an excellent answer. Who's going to be the leader and why? How would it pan out? One carrier between two major powers certainly would not give me any comfort. Are the British allocating more money to the Ministry of Silly Walks? Seems about that sensible to me.
Like the US we have a massive deficit to contend with so this goverment have implimentted a programe of some £81billion of cuts in the next 4 years and also to reduce the goverment wage bill by loosing some half a million emplyees over the same term Defence spending would fall by 8% over four years. The RAF and navy will lose 5,000 jobs each, the Army 7,000 and the Ministry of Defence 25,000 civilian staff (savings of £4.7bn at the department ) worse of all UK's Harrier jump jets will be axed our Tanks to be reduced by 40% and heavy artillery 35% We will though be getting 12 new Chinooks The Navy looses as well, total number of frigates and destroyers would drop from 23 to 19 by 2020 but as a sweetner it gets six new Type 45 destroyers and a fleet of hunter killer Astute class submarines.
De Orc, I think this makes the situation look better than it actually is, correct me if I'm wrong but does not taking the Harriers out of service not render these ships useless in terms of being "aircraft carriers". Currently Hugely, and it has been like this for a while. Cut a bit here and there off the defence budget in the knowledge that you won't. Worse case scenario if the US won't dig us out, then like the Falklands conflict we can borrow a few dollars and missiles off you. Yup your seeing this right, don't worry if we need another one you've shelled out from your taxes to send yours out to help. Probably, but see De Orcs take on this. The French would very much like to see this and the Germans probably too. There are major political problems though and culturally Brits just don't see themselves as being European. We were actually kept out of the Original European Union due to French concerns over our political relationship with the US.
Please don't worry because Uncle Sam will protect his favorite ally (The Commonwealth) with gun ports open.
Actualy no JJ they can still have planes land on them LOL also used for choppers and they are I believe in line for a new breed of sea borne aircraft (so there is hope) By 2023 we would in fact have 2 not 1 carrier with the Prince of Wales mainly kept in mothballs till required (this is the brilliant plan) As for the Americans letting us have one LOL they are in the process of lowering the number that they will be deploying whith the introduction of the new Gerald Ford-class from 10 to possibly 7 the new ones will also be much more automated to keep costs down, we could of course allways ask for the old Tarawa class when they are decomed LOL or borrow the Juan Carlos I from Spain
I was thinking about starting a new thread but it probably won't generate much reply so I will tack it on here... The world total on defense spending was about 1.5 trillion dollars in 2009... The USA was responsible for 46.5% of the world total, distantly followed by the China (6.6% of world share), France (4.2%), UK (3.8%), and Russia (3.5%). We, the US, spend almost as much on defense as the rest of the world combined. With the UK and France cutting...we may soon spend more than the rest of the world combined. http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending#WorldMilitarySpending
Past time, really. Read a recent article on the US being led to a perpetual state of war. A lot of truth to it. The book 1984 comes to mind, of course, where it is used as a way to control the people and a justification for the elimination of freedoms.
You are correct....which is why we are still in Europe, still in ROK, still in Iraq and why Afghanistan keeps getting pushed back and back.
If he had lived to see nuclear weapons create the cold war, do you think he would have changed his mind?
Leave it to you to hone in on the quote I posted and ignore everything else in this thread. You're like my own personal stalker. I'm flattered you care so much. Einstein died in 1955 well after nukes were around and well into the cold war. Do you remember his quote about world war IV? “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” I think he had a good handle on nuclear weapons.
