"Britain is becoming a friend who can't be trusted" says US Army Chief Of Staff
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/11443204/Britain-is-becoming-a-friend-who-cant-be-trusted-says-top-US-general.html
Gen Raymond Odierno, US army Chief of Staff, says UK defence cuts are eroding his country's confidence in our commitment to global security.
His comments, moreover, came after President Barack Obama had taken issue with David Cameron when he visited the White House in January. He warned the Prime Minister of the dangers of allowing British defence expenditure to fall below the 2 per cent of GDP threshold required by our Nato membership.
Gen Raymond Odierno, US army Chief of Staff, says UK defence cuts are eroding his country's confidence in our commitment to global security.
His comments, moreover, came after President Barack Obama had taken issue with David Cameron when he visited the White House in January. He warned the Prime Minister of the dangers of allowing British defence expenditure to fall below the 2 per cent of GDP threshold required by our Nato membership.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31688929
Jeez, the Septics do love their gold braid and coloured ribbons, don't they? Maybe it compensates for the hair loss.
Well, Mr Obama speaks as a man who understands economics - NOT, he just prints money when he needs it and is not bringing down their deficit. We are right, the next war will be with less boots on the ground and more digitally controlled war weapons and cutting our expenditure DOES NOT MEAN cutting down our commitment to world peace - oops, something else Mr Obama is lacking in, the understanding of the English language! Deal with your own problems at home Mr President before criticizing us.
The headline is a bit misleading as he never actually said that, but he does have a point about the defence cuts which are getting close to leaving the UK undefended.
First we also printed money by the billions.
Secondly we once bragged that although the US had the biggest navy Britain had the strongest .
Thirdly where has our mighty industry gone.
We use to build cars buses trains cloth steel ships for many countries around the world now we are ruled by the city of London.
When it comes to the rest of our military so many people from commonwealth countries were proud to join British forces .
Most modern day inventions started life in the UK including the atom bomb and your computer.
Government after government sold off this country to the highest bidder.
One more point why are we making trained military personnel redundant yet advertising for recruits .
When he is an elected member of Parliament then he can tell us how we spend our taxes.
The less American led wars we get involved in the better.
Surely that's more the legacy of the failed "War on Terror", the British public have lost all appetite to see our soldiers maimed and killed fighting badly planned wars of dubious benefit to our national security. Cameron knows this as much as anyone.
That's not to say we shouldn't be wary of the lessons of disarming when our enemies are doing the opposite.
Yes i agree.
Is this a video of the general here.;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMHDBL7CNA4
When he's having to deploy Airborne Maritime assets to hunt for Russian subs in our waters, because we've scrapped ours, I think he's entitled to an opinion.
If the US wants to hunt for Russian submarines then that is their affair but let us not kid ourselves that it is out of the goodness of their hearts.
Having said that, we should of course have our own Maritime Surveillance capability, unfortunately vanity projects such as Trident missile submarines and aircraft carriers seem to be a higher priority.
Minus the actual Planes.;-):D
They have been doing that for the last 70 odd years - it still does not give him the rights to tell us how we spend our taxes
You need young men in the military not old ones with a lot of responsibilities.
Germany 1.3% , Spain a measley 0.9%. They still seem to be in NATO though
Agreed. If the money already spent on defense hadn't been squandered quite so blatantly in very dubious enterprises then there might exist more of a will to increase spending.
The US spends more on "defense" (I'll put that in inverted commas since their version of defense seems to be mostly overseas) than the next 26 countries combined in the list. Consider that. Who's wrong - the US or everyone else?
Maybe it's time to say pay up or leave. I am amazed the American tax payer is prepared to pay, so these countries can spend the money on welfare instead.
Well you could argue that the rest of NATO are getting a free ride on the US Military capability rather than paying their own way.
I'm glad you said this. I looked through the link and saw nothing resembling what the OP says the general said. Wonder where that particular made up quote came from.
I just copied what the headline said, I think maybe the Daily Telegraph has changed the headline.
I really don't care what's required to maintain sizable and continually updated defense, just as long as it's not "wasted" or "siphoned off by corruption."
Big or small, wars are inevitable, do you really want to be playing catch-up if say Russia and China kick something off for example.
Sitting on ones-hands approach to defense is also bad, we should actively getting out there, poking potential enemies defenses, wide reaching, making sure those wanting to harm or enslave us are always second guessing.
Peace makes us weak, un-prepared, vulnerable....
Yeah they must have. Now it says "US fears that Britain's defence cuts will diminish Army on world stage" which is almost accurate. Wish they'd inserted the word 'General' after US.