US general says Britain risks 'special relationship' if it cuts military

[PeaceGen]

found this article interesting.two months older though.thought to share with u guys

Britain will be shut out of key decisions in the 'Special Relationship' with the US if it does not maintain credible military capabilities, Stanley McChrystal, America's former top commander in Afghanistan has warned.


Retd. Gen Stanley McChrystal, the author of America's counter-insurgency strategy and among the most influential and controversial US generals of the post-September-11 era, said that British defence cuts could not be made without a future cost to US-UK military relations.
"It will take a little while to reach that reality," he said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, "but what worries me is that additional cuts could be made and everybody thinks 'it's okay', because people are still polite, but at a certain point you just find you're not consulted when important decisions are made."
The warning came as Leon Panetta, the out-going US defence secretary arrived in London on the final leg of a four-nation tour of Europe, aimed at highlighting the importance of maintaining the transatlantic security relationship at a time of budget cuts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Gen McChrystal, who commanded US Special Forces for five years before taking command of the War in Afghanistan in 2009, recalled the effects of British shortages and over-stretch in both Iraq and Afghanistan, where British forces struggled to hold off a Taliban insurgency in Helmand.
"When we started the fighting in Baghdad seriously in 2004, the Brit [special operations] forces were under-resourced significantly," he recalled of his time in Iraq leading an intense phases of special operations raids that lead to the death of Abu Musab al-Zaqarwi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

We had to lend them a lot of equipment, we had to do a bunch of things; we even had to use forces to help them, because they just didn't have the stuff. Within a couple of years they were just like any of my other forces; they were extraordinary."
When Gen McChrystal took command in Afghanistan in June 2009 he found British forces in Helmand "essentially besieged inside sandbagged outposts the Taliban has surrounded", according to his newly published memoir My Share of the Task.
Meeting a group of Black Watch soldiers that June just after a combat mission, Gen McChrystal recalled that even at an early stage in their six-month tour, the soldiers looked "gaunt and weary, their matted hair blanched and skin yellowed from the film of sand clinging to it.".
The book remains tactful on the arrival of a 17,000-strong force of US Marines sent to rescue the British and the resulting intense friction between British and US commanders who felt Britain had "made a mess" of the task, according to a State Department cable that was leaked in 2010.
Gen McChrystal said that British failures in Helmand were caused by the "hubris" or "ignorance" of British military and political leaders who took on more than they could handle, leading to a dangerous over-stretch of forces.
"You could argue that it's hubris, that it's ignorance – whatever it is – but there was a reality that there was an effort to do more than could be done effectively. And I think the soldiers on the ground knew it. The commanders knew it and they tried to work their way through it," he said.
Asked what lessons Britain should learn from Helmand, Gen McChrystal suggested it would be prudent in future to match political and military ambitions to hard capabilities.
"When you look at Sangin and how hard that was for so long, and of course in all of Helmand," he recalled, "I think the take-away is, to try to do something with less military capability that is required."
The failures in Helmand and in Basra - where British troops were widely seen to have been forced into an ignominious retreat in 2007 - had not irreparably damaged the UK's standing with the US soldiers, who understood the realities of war.
"My sense is that Brits are probably more sensitive about it than Americans, who don't really think about it," he added, "I'm not saying that that sensitivity doesn't have some value because we're sensitive about our shortcomings too."
Gen McChrystal, now 58, remains an influential voice, despite being the first wartime commander to be fired in 60 years after he was dismissed by Barack Obama in June 2010 following an article in Rolling Stone magazine in which his team were quoted openly disparaging the administration.
He has raised questions about the Mr Obama's heavy reliance on unmanned drones to prosecute the war against al Qaeda, predicting the strategy will become unsustainable if the US fails to forge a meaningful strategic partnership with the Afghans after troops withdrew in 2014
"It's very tempting for any country to have a clean, antiseptic approach, that you can use technology, but it's not something that I think is going to be an effective strategy, unless it is part of a wider commitment," he said. "Unless there's something in it for the Afghans, then their willingness to accept it is diminished."

US general says Britain risks 'special relationship' if it cuts military - Telegraph

I agree with this US general. The EU and Brittain need to stay strong in a military sense. Despite native muslim populations, who I'll help keep in check. Brittish, please take note of this promise of mine to you.