Week 7 Reflection (10/4-10/8)

We didn't have any readings or class discussions this week so I will very briefly cover the simulation before going on a world politics related rant.

The simulation went well I thought. We ran over time both in class and my group also ran over time so the whole process was not as smooth as it could have been. Having to argue a position I didn't necessarily agree with was certainly challenging but also rewarding as it made my explore another position in depth -- know your enemy, after all.

Now, onto my rant. I was on Google Reader when I found a post on a blog called "Ink Spots"* which discussed the severe cuts being made to the British defense budget by the current government. Linked there, was a story about the Royal Navy looking to cut the fleet down to 25 total ships. Twenty-five. We're a long ways away from Trafalgar. Added to the cuts of tens of thousands of soldiers, reducing the RAF to pre WWI levels and we're talking about the effective loss of a major military ally. Under these cuts, the ability of the British government to project any power beyond its littoral waters will be close to nil. The residents of the Falklands are holding their breath.

Germany also announced plans to cut thousands of soldiers from their army and to possibly end mandatory conscription could cut the Bundeswehr by 100,000 soldiers.

The British, German, Spanish and Italian armed forces all received less than the NATO minimum of 2% of GDP. France skirts the line at 2.2%. With the economic crisis putting a great deal of upwards pressure on sovereign debt, governments are scrambling to find cuts to arrest the upward trend and the military is an attractive target. The Soviets aren't going to come charging across the Fulda Gap with heavy armoured divisions anytime soon and terrorism is looked at as a mainly a matter for the police**. Europe simply doesn't see the need for a large, standing modern army.

The British Army, once considered the finest fighting force in all the world, is struggling to maintain a 9,500 troop deployment to Afghanistan. France, the country that deployed 400,000 soldiers literally across the globe in the 50's has given all it can at 3,700. Germany, whose military history is... well documented, has deployed under 4,000. Combined with these proposed cuts, it's time to realize a hard truth: Europe has given up it's expeditionary capacity. The United State maintains over 300,000 deployed soldiers all across the world in 820 separate military installations. Europe is a good economic partner, a good partner for law enforcement/counter-terrorism, and we have huge cultural ties and our longstanding friendship with many countries there runs deep. We are allies, and will conceivably be so for the foreseeable future. But it's time to stop pretending that Europe is capable or willing to engage in protracted warfare anymore. Europe has made its choice, now it's time for us to make ours.

Given that Asia is the most likely place for a serious threat to arise, it would be advisable for us to focus more on developing our navy and our alliances in South Asia. Any conflict with China would be primarily aerial and sea based. While it is still imperative to focus on the Marine Corps and Army in IRAFPAK, we cannot ignore the pressing need to modernize our Navy and Air Force. Our Navy has struggled for years to find a replacement for the Arleigh Burke Class Destroyer and the Air Force has spend billions on an unrealistic F-22 and a much delayed and under-performing F-35. We cannot afford to keep acting like the next war will be in Europe or the Middle East and we can't afford to rely on a substantial deployment of European Forces to assist us anymore.

*Ink Spots is a play on Oil Spots, which is a term for population centric counter-insurgency coined (har!) by French General Hubert Lyautey.

**Not that I disagree with this, mind you. But that's another blog post.