Afghanistan: we sent 10,000 troops while still involved in Iraq. Fortunately we seemed to learn the lesson here that you can’t fix an unstable country by occupying it.
Libya: we achieved our goal without sending troops, and possibly outspent the Americans in doing so
Yemen: like every other Western country involved, we sent the navy
Sudan and Somalia: see the lessons of Afghanistan. Why would we have sent troops? No other Western country sent significant numbers either
But London has not been willing to go it alone and had been waiting for the White House to change its mind, which it did on Sunday.
The reason for this is that important components in the missiles are American. As your link says, Starmer had been the one to say it first and to push for it against American reluctance. But if you think that that’s insufficient, fair enough. He has been making moves domestically, even when it’s a controversial matter. Introducing means-testing for winter fuel payments for pensioners was probably the most politically-expensive one. He’s not exactly an exciting guy, that’s for sure, but he’s clearly not afraid of pissing people off either.
Afghanistan: we sent 10,000 troops while still involved in Iraq. Fortunately we seemed to learn the lesson here that you can’t fix an unstable country by occupying it. Libya: we achieved our goal without sending troops, and possibly outspent the Americans in doing so Yemen: like every other Western country involved, we sent the navy Sudan and Somalia: see the lessons of Afghanistan. Why would we have sent troops? No other Western country sent significant numbers either
The reason for this is that important components in the missiles are American. As your link says, Starmer had been the one to say it first and to push for it against American reluctance. But if you think that that’s insufficient, fair enough. He has been making moves domestically, even when it’s a controversial matter. Introducing means-testing for winter fuel payments for pensioners was probably the most politically-expensive one. He’s not exactly an exciting guy, that’s for sure, but he’s clearly not afraid of pissing people off either.