LONDON, May 22 (UPI) -- The British military will not be able to continue fulfilling its current commitments without an increase in defense spending, the Conservatives said Monday.
Speaking at the London international affairs think-tank Chatham House, Conservative Shadow Defense Secretary Liam Fox said: "We've got a very big decision to make... and that's this: do we want to reduce our international commitments to match the resources we've allocated for defense, or are we willing to increase our defense allocation to meet our commitments, because we sure can't continue with what we've got at the moment.
"The level of overstretch is quite unacceptable, and we're getting to the point where we will be incapable of dealing effectively with the level of commitments we now have."
Fox noted that Britain's defense spending for 2006 was just 2.2 percent of GDP, the lowest proportion allocated to security since 1930, and that the British navy was now smaller than that of France.
The average gap between tours of duty was now 21 months, down from the 24 month guideline level, and in reality was often just 10 or eight months for some personnel, he said, adding: "That's a completely unacceptable use in my view of our armed forces."
The government had to completely review its foreign policy and decide what it wanted to achieve, an objective-based approach which he said had been absent in Britain since the end of the Cold War.
British armed forces are currently deployed in military and peace-keeping operations around the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, the Balkans and Cyprus.
