UK's Decline as a World and European Power is complete.

Think Defence has a remarkable story regarding the contribution of their force to the mission in Libya.  He proclaims half way through ....

Lets get a few things straight before the doom mongers start doing down the UK’s contribution.

He makes some rather fanciful (in my opinion) claims to refute the thought that I and others have.  They've cut too deep and are no longer a major player.  Read the whole thing but here's my attempt to rebut his claims.

Whilst Libya has been hogging the newspaper columns let’s not forget the scale of contribution to Afghanistan, anti piracy operations, the Falkland Islands and plenty of other deployments.
The Libya deployments have been in addition to these.

Sorry Think Defence but the other European Powers have commitments as far ranging as the UK's.  The UK has stood strong in Iraq and Afghanistan but this offensive against Libya is straining their resources in a way that is almost comical (if it were an enemy nation).  To see a trusted friend and ally suffering under the weight of this limited combat is most depressing.

Of course the main news point has been about a lack of carriers and Harriers, especially when compared to the French and Italians but instead of concentrating on what we haven’t got, how about a look at what we have, then compare that with the French and Italians.
Submarine launched Tomahawk, ASTOR/Sentinel, RAPTOR, significant tanker, intelligence and command and control support.
This in addition to combat air patrols and strike missions, whilst Afghanistan and other operations haven’t skipped a beat.

Again, Think Defence is off the mark.  One or two Tomahawk launches is hardly credible.  Compared to the number of sorties that the French launched with their Rafales, its somewhat paltry.  Add the fact that the French were making raids before the first Tomahawk was launched and not only must the Rafale be re-examined (it might be a better war plane than I thought) but the lack of having Harrier based strike being retired should be considered a HUGE mistake. Command and Control was accomplished with US and NATO E-3's.  The Sentinel is due to be retired shortly so its capabilities will soon vanish...and NIMRODS are going away soon.  The hallmarks of the UK's unique contribution will soon  be high demand assets with far too few of them to maintain any capability beyond that of a brush war.

The UK has in essence placed it expeditionary war fighting capability in the hands of the RAF...and the RAF is not up to the task!  If combat had occurred outside of the range of bases in Southern Europe then the UK would be sitting on the sidelines.

If I didn't know better I would think that UK strategy is to mirror Germany's by not fighting.  The UK is in essence removing itself from the stage.  Major foreign interventions will be impossible for at least a decade...probably two.

Politicians have been warning that their is a protectionist/isolationist movement in the United States that was dangerous and nonsensical.  Someone should warn the British government of the same.