Hello,
Just a quickie.
A few days ago the Prime Minister announced in the Commons that Britain was 'taking the lead' on the Libyan crisis. This 'lead' included the possibility of enforcing a no-fly zone over the country to counter Gaddifi-loyalist forces bombing the rebels.
As the Ink Spots blog points out though, without the US Navy enforcing a no-fly zone would be highly difficult at best. The UK does not have an aircraft carrier active at the moment - HMS Ark Royal is going to be decommissioned a week today. The next carrier, the Queen Elizabeth class supercarrier HMS Prince of Wales will not be ready until 2020. It's interesting to note that on 26th February the conservative Daily Telegraph was calling on the Prime Minister to help economically isolate the Libyan regime.
As Ink Spots argues, we are increasingly facing a simple fact that was first relayed to us in 1956 - the UK can do virtually nothing militarily on the international with the United States. At Suez we needed their approval. Now it seems we need their help.
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