Do tell:
Britain should have lower expectations of its military power because government spending cuts mean it will not be able to fight every potential war it faces, the new head of its armed forces said. ...
In his first interview since becoming Prime Minister David Cameron's most senior uniformed military adviser, General Nicholas Houghton cautioned that the former imperial power needed to reassess its military might in an uncertain world.
"We have to recalibrate our expectation of the level of capabilities we can field on new operations from a standing start," Houghton, chief of the defense staff, told the Ministry of Defense's in-house magazine, Defense Focus.
Indeed. British power will cause few foes to tremble in fear. Here in America, we have a somewhat useful shorthand to describe the difference between our Marines and Army. The saying is that "the Marines win battles; the Army wins wars." Our Marine Corps is twice the size of Britain's army.
Do the math. Britain's enemies certainly will.
The world is more uncertain. Britain's power is quickly shrinking from global ambitions to being a North Atlantic power that might be able to hold off the Spanish armada if they get some good breaks.
But just as Britain found that a retreat from East of Suez didn't erase the need to operate east of Suez in the 21st century, Britain will find that a lot of uncertainty that will affect Britain exists outside the reach of Britain's more modest military power.
UPDATE: Mind you, British forces will be able to fight a battle. They'll remain excellent fighters. But to wage a war they'll have to be a tribal auxiliary for a power with a war-fighting military.
