You know that I also think there is more downside than upside in Iraq, and I do appreciate the 10k or so troops that the British have in Iraq, but from a military standpoint, we didn't get much help in Gulf War I or II....so that going it with just the British will have practically no effect. If they leave, we'll have to up troop levels 10% or so.
You can't compare the need for an additional 8000 troops (which I believe is what the actual british commitment is) by comparing the shortfall to the aggregate of the US armed forces. Sure we may have 1.4mil troops, but of that number, only around 500,000 are Army personell, and a much smaller component from the Marines. The withdrawl of British troops will need to be replaced from these forces (unless we activate more NG troops).
Realistically, Western Europe needed a leadership in commitment by the US match up well against Slovenia. Gautam or Damon can correct me, but I think that Europe has effectively decided (with the exception of GB and Russia) to effectively not be military powers.
Numbers are not always easy to come by, but it depends on how you define that role. France, FREX, definitely has a committment to power projection by building and comissioning 2 new nuclear powered aircraft carriers, and similarly Italy is probably the 2nd or 3rd largest Navy in NATO, and always an important component in the Med in countering Soviet naval power.
There are plenty of nations in Europe that have similar numbers to the UK in terms of troops and quality equipment, so the argument should be, rather, why does the UK commit itself to power-projection where the other major European states do not (the answer is simple for some, namely Germany)?
Damon.
------------------------------------------------------------ Damon Agretto [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum." http://www.geocities.com/garrand.geo/index.html Now Building: Legends Aussie Centurion Mk.5/1 ------------------------------------------------------------
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