Originally Posted by
elderlypart-timer
Wader 2
Lord Halifax might have said that WW2 was a war of choice but you're right - we could have walked away from both Gulf Wars, Kosovo and the Falklands (that last decision would have stopped Mrs T from being re-elected in 1983)
Just points for debate really.
Not sure the great British public have ever been asked whether they want force projection. They certainly wanted it during the Falklands war
Why did they want it? Were they similarly enthused in Cyprus, Kenya, Aden, Malaya, Singapore etc or did they just go along with the existing WW2 winner, world-power thing?
Had the Government not had the resolve and the media pickep up on it you can imagine a quite different Indie outcome - waht have the Falklands ever done for us? kind of thing.
We can afford to spend more, perhaps not now. MoD continues to sit on valuable assets that have nothing to do with the defence of the realm
Should we/could we depend on others to protect our SLOC?
The UN?
By default we already allow others to, or fail to, protect our SLOC. In the 60s, off Indonesia, two carrier air groups were protecting SLOC. Now one destroyer or frigate can .............
The only global force (command) would be the UN. The only half-way functional international is of course NATO or any other US Command with friendly units attached.