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Brits Say: Time to Get Realistic on Defense

By Doug Bandow on 7.1.09 @ 4:42AM

A new British think tank report urges the United Kingdom to have more modest military aspirations.  Reports the National Newspaper:  "Britain should stop trying to be 'a mini-United States' and give up maintaining armed forces capable of policing world trouble spots, a report from an influential think tank said yesterday."

Business as usual simply won't work in today's world, especially in the midst of economic crisis.  Added the National:

Lord Paddy Ashdown, joint chairman of the panel and a former international high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, told the BBC yesterday: "One conclusion we arrive at is that we can no longer afford to maintain a museum of Cold War armaments.

"We can no longer afford to maintain full-spectrum armed forces capable of operating anywhere in the globe like a mini-United States."

Lord George Robertson, co-chairman of the panel and a former Nato secretary general, added: "In the post-9/11, post-financial crisis world, we must be smarter and more ruthless in targeting national resources as the real security risks.

A more realistic military policy centered more on genuine national defense?  I don't know about Britain, but it sure sounds like a good idea for America!