Britain’s military strength has declined for the ninth consecutive year despite calls from officials for increased defense activity in the Gulf and Arctic and a recruitment strategy targeting ‘millennials’ over the past 12 months.
The British Army, Royal Navy and RAF have all seen dwindling numbers in their fully-trained personnel, with the army suffering the biggest losses, according to figures released by the Ministry of Defence.
In July, there were 74,440 army personnel, down 2,440 on the previous year’s total and 7,000 troops short of the UK government’s target.
The Royal Navy and Royal Marines numbers dropped to 29,090 of the required 30,600, despite rhetoric from British defense officials, past and present, signalling an increased military presence in hostile areas.
President Trump, a word, please; just how, can you tell the American people, that you are going to oppose the polar silk road, without a major military confrontation against both China and Russia?!? I cannot believe for a moment, that this is for either Chinese, or Russian consumption, because you; Xi Ping, and Russia's Putin, understand the realities here.
Russia and China are creating far superior weapons to those created by their American counterparts; and one, stingingly humiliating example of this is when Edrogan decided to buy the Russian S-400 Defense system, rather than the American alternative.
Russia and China still conscript; the US does not.
All of this, combined with the reality that the US military doesn't have the budget; the troop strength; the manufacturing, or the weaponry to ensure a positive outcome to a conventional war against Russia and/or China, should give you, and the others in the bowels of power in DC, pause to perhaps find a diplomatic solution here, rather than a military one.
And President Trump, please, consider the following realities