One question- UK and world affairs

ElRazur · 21 Dec 2006 at 23:34

If we stayed out of Iraq, middle east and change our foriegn policy and we sort of become a neutral nation (dunno if that is possible to acheive). What will be the out come, cosenquences and can this be acheived. I have been asked this over msn and i dont know what to say.

EDIT
Also what will this impact have on our economy and is sweden practising this kind of model

ElRazur · 21 Dec 2006 at 23:50

Anyone please...?

G|mp · 21 Dec 2006 at 23:52

America would lose more wars

ElRazur · 21 Dec 2006 at 23:53

G|mp said:
America would lose more wars

Surely they would seek allies else where? That's what i said when he said the same thing.

G|mp · 21 Dec 2006 at 23:55

They wouldnt get allies anywhere else, not with the same military capabilities anyway

Biohazard · 21 Dec 2006 at 23:57

The US is probably the most isolationist out of them all tbh imo. Other than us, and relatively warm receptions else where. Not life saving in dire needs I woulnd't have thought..

Fraggr · 22 Dec 2006 at 00:14

America wouldn't lose more wars. IIRC they have 140K soldiers in Iraq, we have 7K, hardly think we're really making much difference.

Zip · 22 Dec 2006 at 00:21

I would say the UK would lose a very close and needed Ally with the US.

And because the US gave a **** about us in ww2 unlike a certain nation that wouldnt let us have our troops back

Australia would still go along with the US. We would still be allys with you lot just not as close as we would be with the us unless they queen demanded our soldiers around

Biohazard · 22 Dec 2006 at 00:33

There are friendly nations who would and do pull together for the 'common cause' I am of no doubt.

Lets say if the preverbial **** hit the fan, large scale war for America reaching its own soil (extreme I know but say years down the line?).. What could we or Australia etc trully accomplish in assistance?

Due to the UK's foreign policy our troops are usually in comabat, somewhere. We wouldn't have the large scale physical presence required other than large scale weapons which would be of no use in the above example, defence cut backs in my mind do not secure our own borders let alone assisting nations around the globe.

We are stretched as it is in Iraq and Afghan.

I think becoming a totally neutral country could have benefits for sure, although I would not be keen to roll into this century without defence.

Nix · 22 Dec 2006 at 00:35

Zip said:
I would say the UK would lose a very close and needed Ally with the US.

And because the US gave a **** about us in ww2 unlike a certain nation that wouldnt let us have our troops back Australia would still go along with the US. We would still be allys with you lot just not as close as we would be with the us unless they queen demanded our soldiers around

We'll never not be an ally with the USA. They need us as a proxy to Europe as much as we need them. We have a lot in common and are closely linked through more than just economics or politics.

Britain, I feel would probably be seen as a more casual nation-state and probably even not taken seriously. Are the Dutch taken seriously?

I guess that Britain keeping close ties and 'going to war' as it has is safe-guarding our power-projection and buying power, etc.

Biohazard · 22 Dec 2006 at 00:38

Nix said:
Are the Dutch taken seriously?

That was the only concern I could think of. Trident solves that problem but then it is controversial, expensive and very out of place for a neutral country.

Glaucus · 22 Dec 2006 at 00:40

nothing positive, terrorists would still attack us where infields unless we introduce Muslim law ect then where fair game what ever our polcies are.

Nations like iran would increase there muscle as without uk support America would be even more limited on what they can achieve as they would lose all there bases and support from the uk if we where neutral.

So basically a whole world of ****

Hades · 22 Dec 2006 at 01:16

I loathe the current American government (and our own govt to be honest). But not America or the people who I have always found to be extremely friendly to us Brits. We have close ties to them and give each other a lot of benefit. From the US we obviously receive military support in the event of a **** hitting the fan situation. And we provide political support for them. If we were to cut ties with the US then we would either have to increase our military budget or completely embrace neutrality. Either way, our own political might would be significantly reduced.

And to be honest I really don't think it would prevent us being a target for some of the extremists of this world. Owing to our past history of close liaison with the US we are pretty stuffed if we were to cut ties and try to go it alone.

Muhammed · 22 Dec 2006 at 01:28

ElRazur said:
If

I personally see this word to be useless as it wil lshow us little, and we wont know what we would have thought to be true anyway.

Eg, what would the world be like IF hitler didnt do all of that stuff?

See no point....

ElRazur · 22 Dec 2006 at 08:51

Interesting scenario guys, welldone and thanks. I suppose we can be nuetral but still maintain our military capabilities (or some might argue that it is a waste of money since we aint a threat?)

Some one mentioned we will still be attacked by terrorist right? but, what will they have against us since we are neutral? Iirc, there is hardly any news of attacks in sweden (netral conutry right?) and it seems there economy is doing well too.

PhilthyPhil · 22 Dec 2006 at 10:08

Do you mean Switzerland? While countries such as Sweden, Finland, Austria and Rep. of Ireland can be thought of as neutral, this is not really true since they are members of the EU which shares a common foreign policy.

D4VE · 22 Dec 2006 at 10:17

ElRazur said:
Interesting scenario guys, welldone and thanks. I suppose we can be nuetral but still maintain our military capabilities (or some might argue that it is a waste of money since we aint a threat?)

Some one mentioned we will still be attacked by terrorist right? but, what will they have against us since we are neutral? Iirc, there is hardly any news of attacks in sweden (netral conutry right?) and it seems there economy is doing well too.

I think there were attacks in France though and they were against the war.
Terrorists aren't rational, you have to fight them head on IMO.

Fraggr · 22 Dec 2006 at 12:44

If we became neutral at this very moment and pulled all our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else they are, we'd get attacked because it doesn't change the fact we've helped kill several thousand Iraqis and Afghans. Yes we will still get terrorists trying to attack us.

Zip · 22 Dec 2006 at 13:00

Fraggr said:
If we became neutral at this very moment and pulled all our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan and wherever else they are, we'd get attacked because it doesn't change the fact we've helped kill several thousand Iraqis and Afghans. Yes we will still get terrorists trying to attack us.

It also doesnt change the fact that you are western and Christian country which to them makes you infedels. Plus all this PC bs that keeps happening also gives them more chances to make the country turn against itself like it has and start pblaming everyone and everything and making all the councils around there walk on egg shells around muslims and people of middle eastern decent

clv101 · 22 Dec 2006 at 13:06

.

ElRazur said:
If we stayed out of Iraq, middle east and change our foriegn policy and we sort of become a neutral nation (dunno if that is possible to acheive). What will be the out come, cosenquences and can this be acheived. I have been asked this over msn and i dont know what to say.

It is hard to see what our foreign policy is doing for us - I mean look at Japan, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Norway, Canada etc (random list of not totally dissimilar countries with more conservative foreign policy). What do we gain that Germany loses out on? Personally I think the UK government has delusions of grandeur and we should stop fussing with the rest of the world quite as much and try and address our internal problems – of which there are no shortages!!