What sort of country do we want to be? A soft one

Admiral Lord West’s intervention was most striking in its language. He promised that a ‘national humiliation on the scale of the loss of Singapore’ would ensue unless his advice was heeded. Writing in the Times (£), Sir Menzies Campbell notes West’s seething tone and concludes that his frustration was the product of a review of defence resources, not strategy. At no point, Campbell says, did the government ask ‘what sort of country do we want to be’ and plan accordingly. Campbell continues:

‘Is Britain ready now or likely to be ready to go to the aid, alone or with allies, of a nation that becomes the target of aggression, as we did in Sierra Leone and Kosovo? Are we now willing or likely to be willing to offer troops in substantial numbers for UN peacekeeping or much more daunting peace enforcement? Are we prepared or likely to be prepared to have the exhaustive review of our nuclear posture that should have been a formal part of the defence review? Are we now willing or likely to be willing to join the US in any form of military action against Iran if it persists in its bloody-minded determination to obtain a military nuclear capability?’