[lit-ideas] British Navy to cut its fleet in half
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2007 05:04:31 -0800
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/05/navy05.xml
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/05/navy05.xml&;
DCMP=EMC-new_05012007> &DCMP=EMC-new_05012007
One of the most interesting books I read not last year but in 2003 was
Dreadnought, Britain, Germany, and the Coming of the Great War. In it
Robert Massie describes in 908 pages of text, the "Dreadnought Race" between
Britain and Germany. Britain was unwilling for Germany to have as large a
fleet of Dreadnoughts, considered at the time the most potent of naval
vessels. This was one of the contributing factors leading up to World War
One. But now, as the article by Thomas Harding indicates, Britain intends
to cut its fleet in half. "A senior officer, currently serving with the
Fleet in Portsmouth, said: 'What this means is that we are now no better
than a coastal defence force or a fleet of dug-out canoes. The Dutch now
have a better navy than us."
It was shocking to hear that Britain is no longer interested in ruling the
waves the waves - any of them, but at the same time I could imagine the
reasoning behind the decision. What is the clear and present danger Britain
faces? It is what the US faces as well, Militant Islam. A fleet won't help
Britain against the para-military attacks of terrorist organizations, and if
it comes to projecting a British force into the Middle East to help deal
with a Militant nation like Iran, they can do that from the air and if they
need to put troops on the ground they can take them their with ordinary
transport vessels. Iran has threatened a sea battle under certain
circumstances but there is no reason to take them seriously - by that I mean
there is no reason to believe their naval force couldn't be easily defeated.
I recall someone on Lit-Ideas, perhaps Omar, describing Iran as a serious
military threat, that idea isn't widely shared.
I'm sure that the British decision wasn't a unified one. There are those in
Britain who believe that the Militant-Islamic threat isn't as serious as
some believe. Not only do they not see any nation that might threaten their
navy, they do not see the Militant Islamic threat as being very potent.
The Islamic Militants declared war upon us and they did their best to cause
us trouble, but even if we believed that such people as Osama meant what
they said and believed they could carry out their intentions, were they to
be taken seriously; that is, Osama might mean every word he has spoken, but
does he really have the means to do what he intended? Fukuyama, Olivier Roy
and Gilles Kepel among others think not. And perhaps they are right. From
a military standpoint it would be foolish to plan as though they are right,
but this cutting of the fleet isn't quite that. It may be in the minds of
some of those approving the cut, but by itself it doesn't diminish Britain's
ability to combat Militant Islam as we understand it today.
Lawrence
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