The Destruction of the British Navy
September 30, 2007 by Michael van der Galiën
One of Europe’s biggest mistakes ever made is that all Western European countries have destroyed their military after the second world war. Before World War II, European countries had the most powerful armies in the world; we ruled the world, Brittania ruled the waves. No matter what happened, and where it happened, European powers were able to intervene.
After World War II, however, Europe’s attitude towards armed forces changed. Instead of learning the lessons we had to learn from World War II, we learned - to a degree - the wrong ones; decided that having strong and powerful armed forces is per definition wrong. We learned the ‘lesson’ that having a powerful military automatically results in an aggressive foreign policy. What we forgot, however, is that using force is sometimes necessary and that if we don’t have a big military ourselves, we simply become dependent on others.
Slowly but surely, more and more Europeans seem to realize this; this is especially the case is Great Britain. Labor, on the other hand, hasn’t learned from the past several decades: instead of investing in its military and more specifically in its navy, Labor wants Great Britain to “slash the number of ships in the Royal Navy.“
According to The Sunday Telegraph, New Labor ministers have secretly drawn up proposals to do so. In fact, “The Ministry of Defence has produced a plan to decommission five warships from next April, which would reduce the Navy’s capability to the level where it could carry out only ‘one small-scale operation’,” because its total number of ships “could fall from the present level of 103 to 76 in 2017 and only 50 in 2027 — a reduction of more than half.”
The Sunday Telegraph got its hands on the plan, because a worried person working at the MoD decided to send an e-mail to TST. This e-mail reads:
The Chief Sec directed that no further money from the CSR would be allocated to Defence and to maintain force levels the Dept must find the savings/cuts.
For the RN [Royal Navy], the poor CSR deal and the commitment to 2 carriers is such that a proposal for the immediate decommissioning of 5 ships (frigates and destroyers) from April next year has been considered.
This would reduce the RN’s capabilities to just one small scale operation and that is it.
What this leads to - what Navy Britain will have 40 years from now - Gaius quite accurately shows.
It’s easy to make fun of the Brits, of course, but fact of the matter is that I don’t find this funny at all. Britain once had the most powerful Navy in the world. Labor’s goal seems to have always been to bring it to utter destruction; it has almost succeeded in doing so, if it goes ahead and implements these plans it will succeed. This will not only weaken Britain, it will weaken the West as a whole and the EU. Forget about playing an important role in the world, forget about defending ourselves against possible future attacks, forget about it all. Europe will be handicapped and useless. All we’ll be able to do is to live in our Kantian paradise, hoping everyone will just let us be and live in peace. For if they do not, we can’t do anything about it.
The post-WW II actions of Europe, like pacifism in general, critically depends on the existance of someone else who is willing to exercise the force that the idealist will not. In domestic matters, that is the police. For Europe, that was America.
It’s a lovely life, when you can get away with it. And you get to denounce those who allow you the luxury for failing to have your lofty standards. But eventually you face a problem. For Europe, there is the chance (becoming visible during this election cycle) of American going into one of its occasional isolationist phases. That won’t (can’t) last — but it may be painful for Europe, not to mention the rest of the world, while it does.
Recognition of that risk is forcing at least some European governments to think about what they may need to do to take care of themselves. Not, perhaps, Britains’ Labor party, nor numerious others. But perhaps enough to create a new reality in Europe.
Nice if the Euros took some more responsibility for military affairs.
“We”? Thinking about the days when Holland was a major power and sold tulip bulbs around the world? Planning to go back…?
It’s socialisms greatest feat ? You tax and tax and refuse to spend any on your own defence. You get a big friend to protect you. You then whine that the big friend you use to protect you is actually the causative agent of those things that hurt you.You sit at home thinking high thoughts. When you speak out these high thoughts and no one listens you speak louder. No one listens. You stay at home feeling for those in Darfur and Burma. Your big friend can’t do it all.