Trump Admin Tells Defence-Crisis Britain to Fix Itself Fast
The United States urged Britain to resolve its defense crisis after two ministers resigned over inadequate military spending that exposed gaps in the country's security posture.
Elbridge Colby, Undersecretary of War in the Trump administration, warned that there is again a great need for more British military strength in this critical time, as Breitbart News reports, following a dramatic collapse in Westminster’s defence planning that has exposed the hollowness of Britain’s security posture.
British Defence Secretary John Healey resigned his post on Thursday, followed mere hours later by his junior minister, Under-Secretary of State for the Armed Forces Al Carns, a decorated retired Royal Marines Colonel and former special forces officer. Both men cited the government’s catastrophically inadequate Defence Investment Plan as the reason for their departure.
According to Breitbart News, Healey stated in his resignation letter that he was shown the long-delayed spending package on Monday and was shocked to discover it represented only a tiny fraction of what was needed to maintain Britain’s national security. The plan had been promised to match the government’s bellicose rhetoric about global security threats, but failed spectacularly to deliver.
Carns wrote in his own resignation that the government was asking Britain’s Armed Forces to operate in a more dangerous world on a budget written for a calmer one, adding that he had run out of room to argue the case honourably from inside government.
The government scrambled to appoint a new Defence Secretary on Thursday night and insisted the Defence Investment Plan would perform adequately, despite having just triggered the resignation of two highly respected ministers. Washington, however, was not reassured.
Colby responded directly to the resignations by reminding Britain of its martial heritage and calling on the country to urgently rebuild its military strength. He stated that the United Kingdom has an extraordinarily proud military history that commands American respect, and urged the UK to meet the need for renewed military power with urgency, scale, and determination.
The ministerial resignations are merely the latest signal to the watching world that Britain, while maintaining belligerent rhetoric on defence, made the mistake of betting heavily on the post-Cold War peace dividend and now finds itself unable to meet its commitments.
Once world-beating forces such as the Royal Navy, which until very recently was unquestionably second only to the United States in reach and capability, now appear barely functional. None of the UK’s fleet of hunter-killer submarines are currently at sea, a posture dramatically at odds with the government’s frequently expressed concerns about Russian ships and submarines operating in the North Sea and British home waters.
When Iran launched widespread attacks during the recent Middle East crisis, Britain was caught flat-footed and unable to deploy a single ship to contribute to the security of British forces and allies in the Eastern Mediterranean and wider region. This failure has visibly damaged Britain’s prestige and diplomatic standing.
Even when the country eventually managed to deploy a single destroyer, it came at the cost of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The only ship made available had been assigned to an upcoming British-led NATO exercise, forcing London to borrow a German frigate to fill the gap.
With information from Breitbart News
