UK Cuts Endanger Special Relationship With US

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Since the end of World War II, Britain has been America's most dependable ally, fighting alongside it in battle zones from Korea to Afghanistan. But leading U.S. officials are now questioning whether that special relationship can survive plans by the country's recession-hit government to brutally slash its military spending.

The full extent of the cuts will be set out Tuesday, when British Defence Secretary Liam Fox unveils the conclusions of the four-month Strategic Defence and Security Review. When that review was launched in June, the newly elected Conservative government said it would focus on ensuring the military was "adaptable" and able to address 21st-century threats. However, many experts inside and outside the country today suspect that this exercise has been little more than a camouflaged cost-cutting mission by the Treasury -- one that is expected to see the armed forces' $60 billion budget cut by 10 to 25 percent.

Those extreme cutbacks -- likely to result in fleets of fighter-bombers and frigates being scrapped -- appear too deep for U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who on Thursday staged last-minute interventions intended to persuade Prime Minister David Cameron to water down the proposals.

Great Britain is facing a horrifying fiscal crisis and they need to cut something, in the eyes of American government cutting military budget is the last thing anyone should ever do. I guess they expect Great Britain to abolish their social services before ever cutting their military budget just so they are guaranteed to always have a friend to go bombing the world with. Maybe it has taken a CP politician to finally put an end to the whole Western Warfare mentality since NATO was formed.

While the cuts aren't expected to have an impact on the country's Afghan deployment, Warren Chin -- an expert in U.K. defense policy at King's College London -- said U.S. officials were worried that Britain's days as an effective ally might be over. "From an American perspective, they're focused on how willing and able the U.K. will be in terms of supporting operations like Afghanistan and Iraq in future, and whether they'll have the maritime and air components needed to support those sorts of operations," he said. "If the rumors and speculation ahead of the review are true, the reductions in the defense budget are, in the eyes of some, going to gut the services."

So Great Britain makes drastic cuts in their military and they are already thinking that our military alliance is ending? There are more important things that the US and UK share other than a military alliance. Maybe this will finally put the nail in the coffin of the Neocon foreign policy of the US when we know whatever we do militarily will truly just be US against THEM, not NATO against THEM. Make the American government think twice about the Iran situation or any other little campaign we might want to fight.

So what are some British opinions on this?

I think America should keep it's nose out of the UK's deficit cuts, it has nothing to do with America. We have the 5th largest army , which is surely enough. We have more important things for money to be spent on, like schools, hospitals and universities. We need to stop spending billions on bombs and planes to fight illegal wars.

I know most of my fellow brits would rather spend more on our armed forces, but I believe we have much more important things to be spending our money on right now. I dont think people understand the level of cuts that are coming our way, it seems crazy to be upgrading a nuclear weapons system at such a time.

Im not surprised America is concerned about our cuts, but we shouldn't feel any responsibility to America. We have been their lackies in Iraq and Afghanistan, we dont need to follow them into any other conflicts.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


You summed it up quite nicely.

reply to post by Misoir

I hope the official British response to President Obama includes the words "But YOU were the one who was telling US that the "special relationship" did not exist. Remember?"

The "special relationship" has been dead for years, can't we just put this whole silly idea to bed once and for all?

I can't really say that I would be all that upset if the alleged 'special relationship' between Great Britain and America was diving into dissolution. In fact, I think I world prefer it to do so. This modern America is not a country that carrys within its heart the pathos of what it was founded on, it is not the sort of country I would wish my country to have a special relationship with.

I'm not airing anti-American sentiment, but more of a political disagreemnet with the strategies of the past 40 or 50 years of American hegemony. America is a fractured nation, united only through desires and yearnings, but certainly not by a focussed direction. Britain has a problem in that politically it has been trying to pander too much to both Europe and America, and indoing so, it has lost its sovereignty to the former, and become nothing more than a lackey to the latter.

Right now, is a time when Britain should isolate itself and deal with its crumbling and corrupt financial systems, but no, our political leaders are trying to stave off the inevitable financial collapse, by making severe cuts right across the board. British politicians are not interested in British defence maintained by British military forces, they believe our armed forces will always work in tandem with other countries, and if other countries commit their militaries to the defence campaign of Europe, Britain no longer requires the substantial military ability it has traditionally maintained. We ae nothing more than a token country, making token commitments as a ally, It's a total farce.

As to the special relationship with America, we cannot afford it...not just financially, but militarily, socially, politically, philosophically, ethically, and morally. Basically, Britain is becoming bankrupt in all these self-expressions. I think it is time to pack it in...let America go its way, but alone, isolated and aloof.

reply to post by DISRAELI


The Special Relationship exists only when it serves American interests.

As I jsut posted on another thread, I suspect that some are worried that the game the US and UK have been playing for a long time will come to an end.. like playing switcharoo with arming fuses on the Trident that make them hard target capable.. I mean, it wasn't like it was an upgrade or manipulated any treaties as long as both the US and UK keep their fingers crossed behind their backs

But the lack of congressional oversight the US military industrial complex has in the UK might have a few concerned as to what that would mean if the UK and US stopped having such a close relationship, or if the UK shifted to a more European bias.

Hmmmm.... lots of stuff is developed at AWE and Porton Down that I am sure the US will want kept under close wraps.

Interesting times indeed since this type of technology can not be unlearned.

reply to post by Misoir


I think Trident is the true concern of the US.

As an army the US can manage fine without UK ground forces being present, same with the Navy and the Air Forces.
As for politics, the UK will still be US allies when it comes to the UN security council and NATO.

Trident however is a US missile system fitted to UK subs, this gives the US a degree of control over UK nuclear strategy and is seen by the US as part of it's own global strategy.

If the UK drops Trident then the US will have to create a new European strategy which will be expensive.

It will lose direct influence over UK foreign policy related to strategic nuclear issues.

The US will lose a paying customer for its Trident system and will also have to foot the bill for a system to fill the nuclear gap.

Successive UK Governments have been wasting money for years, and now we are paying the price.

If money has to be saved, then fine, but Defence is , in my opinion, one of the last aspects of state that should be subject.

What sort of message will this send out to terrorists?

Well, put it this way, if you were a burglar, and were told that a house you would like to target, has reduced its security, lowered its walls, and left its doors open? An easier target?

I love my country, but I seriously believe this is not our best way forward.

But what will it matter - as long as stupid tv talent shows aand soap operas are still on, then the UK can sleep easy
>sigh

I want to add another post as an addendum to my earlier one. It is important that American readers of this thread fully understand the pathos that is being expressed here...what is not being expressed is anti-American sentiment.
I fully believe that the ordinary (and I use that term as a shared common experience) men and women of both Great Britain and America (in fact between any country), are the real elements that provide the overall bedrock for their nations. These elements are capable of creating relations internationally free of political, religous and social agendas. They can inter-relate as family and friends sharing their life experiences in a commonality that is culturally different, but stimulating and lasting. So no, the sentiment being expressed in this thread is not attacking or criticising these international aspects of self-identity and self-expressions. If left to their own energies, ordinary people around the world will always find ways to inter-relate with each other through peace and mutual respect.

What is being criticised are the elements of control and mis-management expressed and forcibly delivered through politics, religious and social institutions that constantly drive a wedge between ordinary people. To this trio of controlled and forced cultural exchange avenues, we can now add a fourth...that of business. This fourth avenue is expressed through the ideology of 'globalisation', which is a ideology that necessarily seeks to deny the self-expressing aspects of identity, one to another, of ordinary people through mutual peace and respect.

For globalisation to achieve its intended goals (and its supporters are well on the way to achieving them), it requires nations to meld into a form of a global 'hive', blurring cultural distinctions between one nation and another. It began with the dilution of cultural identity for each nation through the auspices of mutliculturalism, with the intended influx of immigrants (and no, it is not their fault) fleeing their own countries in hope of seeking a better life for themselves in their adoptive country. They just want the same as you and I, to live in peace and respect, and to eke out a life that brings joy and happiness. Unfortunately, it brings with it a negative impact upon the adoptive country, and that is it dilutes (over a period of time) the cultural identity of the home population. This negative multicultural impact was one of the first intended effects that the engineers of globalisation sought to achieve. If each home nation of each country maintained its own strong cultural identity, globalisation cannot establish itself, it cannot gain control. International businesses cannot influence and impact upon each country's government which supposedly governs to the cultural identity of the home population. Of course, a quick glance at the governments of each country today, and we see that they no longer govern to the home population's own cultural identity, but to that of a multicultural, non-specific culture...they govern to the requirements of business. Governments have become nothing more than the puppets of global conglomerations, run by the so-called elite...the new world order (NWO). Strong self-identification to one's own cultural tradition is a absolute anathema to the NWO's agenda.

The NWO's agenda has been driven through the hegemony of American expansionism for almost a hundred years. One thing the British empire never did was to deny the home population's self-cultural identity, and that is one of the reasons why it had to be broken up, and it took two world wars to bankrupt Britain into losing its empire. It still retains a commonwealth of nations, but each nation is self-directive, having its own cultural identity that is now being attacked and diluted by the forces of globalisation. Business wants to rule the world to its needs and wants and agenda, and governments are the puppets in its pockets that now drive the globalising engine.

The problem with globalisation is not that it is sweeping the planet, but who is controlling it and by what ideology they are doing so. Globalisation is an inevitable social growth of mankind. Nations, given the time will always find a way to reconcile themselves to peace and social intercourse and trading, but the beneficiaries of these reconciliations should be the nations themselves, the people of those nations, but what we have in reality is a greed and avaricial grab by a few to benefit themselves at the cost of the peoples of each nation. This form of globalisation is a cancer to the one that we should all be aspiring towards. The elite are seeking to make 'drones' of us all to their global 'hive', irrespective of whatever nation you hail from. Drones do not have cultural identities, they are mere automatons for the few at the top directing things, and living lavishly at the same time off the hard work and taxes of the ordinary people.

As I stated earlier, globalisation is an inevitable social growth of mankind, but it has to be unforced and uncontrolled, it cannot be rushed and it cannot be coerced by ideology...it has to be neutral and uncodified. It has to be, in effect, a spiritual growth having no connotations with religion or any other institutionalised ideology, and we are many many years from that at the moment. It is in this context that my earlier post is to be read and understood. Just like people, you cannot force nations into friendships, they have to find their own unforced way into becoming allies, into finding reconciliations to peace and just accord.

As much as I admire and want friendship with the ordinary men and women of America, I cannot support the hegemonal politics coming out from their successive governments who have been driving the carcinogenic form of globalisation. The fact is, those American governments have been aided and abetted by the governments of most western nations, especially that of my own nation's (Great Britain) governments...and I feel that with a deep sense of shame. I don't want my country to have a 'special relationship' with another country based on such negative principles.

Funny now the cut’s have happened the U.S-British special relationship continues. Whoever would have thought? (Sarcasm intended!)

Currently the special relationship seems to be as follows…
U.S: "Hay poodle; send your troops to Afghanistan"
Britain: "That’s what our media masters were telling us to do!!! How many troops do you want?"
U.S: Lot’s. "Can you equip them?"
Britain: "Err sort of… not really...err well…"
U.S: "Send them anyway"
Britain: "That’s funny; that’s what our media masters were telling us to do!"

I like the U.S special relationship, as we face the same enemies (i.e. those who leed us) and we have the same false missions to “complete”. Therefore should either become a fully functional democracy, hopefully it will happen at roughly around the same time!