The world’s oceans use to be part of the British Empire due to the fact the Royal Navy was the world’s only super power. But now that mantle has moved to America, and the result is a shocking defense cutting effort that puts the Royal Navy on par with the Belgian Navy (I did not even know Belgium had a Navy).

Maybe it’s fitting that the British sailors were kidnapped almost literally under the guns of the Cornwall. If so ordered, the frigate could have blown the Iranian Revolutionary Guard flotilla out of the water.
Along with her sister ships Cumberland, Chatham and Campbell, Cornwall is slated to be mothballed as the British government does what no foreign enemy could ever do — sink the Royal Navy.
Two months ago, Britain announced that almost half its fleet of 44 warships will be mothballed due to defense budget cuts. British naval forces have been so degraded it is doubtful they could pull off 1982’s Falkland Islands mission today.
This time next year, according to plans, the British navy that once ruled the seas will be roughly the size of the Belgian navy. According to the London Daily Telegraph, the cuts “will turn Britain’s once-proud Navy into nothing more than a coastal defense force.”
Last month, Blair announced that 1,600 British troops will return from Iraq in the next few months, further reducing Britain’s presence to about 5,500. At their highest point shortly after the defeat of Saddam Hussein, British forces numbered over 40,000. The world’s fifth-largest economy now supports an army 28th in size.

When liberals naively claim we need an international force to support our efforts in the Global War on Terror, clearly they have no idea that no international force exists. European forces were minimal during the Cold War, but since the end of the USSR have become shriveled up in size to the point nations cannot project any serious numbers anywhere. If the EU combined its forces to support an effort I would wager they could only field a fraction of what the US has now in Iraq and the surrounding countries of the ME. We are alone now, facing the terrorists because Europeans cannot afford to defend themselves, let alone the idea of democratic freedom.