Montgomery And Churchill Would Be Appalled At Britain’s Much-Reduced Armed Forces

When Montgomery stopped Rommel at El Alamein in November of 1942, Britain had reached its high water mark in military prowess for the twentieth century. It was all downhill from there. Less than three years later Montgomery had to sit by and watch the Russians take Berlin just to please Eisenhower when his own forces could easily have gotten there first and spared the later part of the twentieth century much of the Cold War.

Britain has permanently become such an arm or leg of the United States armed forces. Last October David Cameron, the British Prime Minister from the Conservative Party, Churchill’s own party believe it or not, decided to cut the defense budget by 7.5 % and cut the head count by 10% over 5 years. They even decided to get rid of the only two British aircraft carriers, leaving them with none. They are now at the point where the heads of the army, navy, and air force said in a meeting of the Parliamentary Defense Committee that Britain no longer has a “full-spectrum military force”. They cannot counter insurgency and state to state combat at the same time. Charles Guthrie, the former head of the British Armed Forces from 1997-2001 said that Britain will no longer be the leader of the second tier of military powers anymore.

Britain might be in the midst of the most dramatic fisal tightening since the 1930’s, but does that mean if they are attacked they will elect another Neville Chamberlain who will talk about appeasement and “peace in our time”? If there is another Blitz, say by Iran, will they ask for Lend Lease all over again?
It’s easy to pick out the winners and losers in the group below: