Had a good laugh at that Unfortunately it's not far from the truth. For decades ever since the USSR collapsed and Russia appeared to be opening up coming in from the cold successive governments have seen defence as an easy target for cuts. Not necessarily their fault the threat appeared to have diminished, ask anyone would they rather have a new hospital or a new warship and most people would have gone with the hospital. It's only now after Russia invaded Ukraine that governments all over Europe are waking up to the fact that peace has a price. The governments first priority Is or should be to protect its people. My solution to stop the cuts would be there should be a law that imposes a ring fenced percentage of GDP for defence that whatever government is in power would have to adhere to. I would like to see 5% After seeng what is happening in Ukraine and Iran I would say an air defence system covering the UK should be a priority. Defence equipment ships planes tanks etc. take years to develop & build it's not something you can just pick up when you need it. NATO in its current form cannot be relied on as the latest rant by Trump only confirms. "In an 8 minute call to the Financial Times US President Donald Trump said NATO could face a "very bad" future if members didn't contribute forces to help re open the Strait of Hormuz, in an apparent attempt to blackmail countries into joining the war by threatening to withdraw American support for NATO. He also said he might delay a planned state visit to China if it also did not contribute." My personal opinion is Europe would be better off and safer without the US in the UK and Europe they always seem to be at war somewhere in the world. US bases in Europe were, and remain, a key component of protecting the USA by projecting power and deterring threats forward. Established after WW2, these bases provided forward defence against threats like the USSR, enable rapid response in Europe/Africa/Middle East, and secured transatlantic interests, preventing threats from reaching the US homeland but as usual Trump is too thick to understand that or listen to those that do. That threat is no longer there only Russia as a possibly but unlikely threat to the US so the only reason for the US to have those bases now is to project its power and influence abroad. Europe has the expertise and capability to develop and build its own defence equipment as well as defend itself from Russia something it must do. It can no longer rely on American weapons or NATO with the US as part of it. They need to form a new European alliance or even a EU military with the UK allied to it and all US bases in the UK and Europe closed. At the moment Russia is the only real threat and hopefully after the war in Ukraine has come to an end and Putin has gone relations can be normalised. When I was in the British Army it was about 300,000 strong now it's down to about 75,000 just a quarter of what it was. My father & grandfather were both in the Royal Navy in those days it was the biggest most powerful navy in the world compare that to now. These days I now have one son in the Royal Navy and another in the Royal Marines fortunately none of them are in the Mediterranean (yet).
