U.S. military power will suffer if Scotland votes to separate from the United Kingdom on Thursday, says Michael Barone, senior political analyst for The Washington Examiner and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
"In terms of deployments or military capacity, when you're looking for allies, when you're looking to be multilateral and you're looking for military forces to combine, the U.K. is one of the first places you look because of our longtime positive relationship with them," Barone said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
Newsmax TV.
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"Britain's military capacity is going to be harmed if Scotland goes independent . . . You're also going to have Scottish soldiers that are currently part of her majesty's troops going to leave the U.K forces.
"Scottish people have contributed more than their proportionate share of British military might and British military causalities over the last 300 years. This will be a diminishment of the capacity of the U.K. to be a military ally of the U.S., and that's not good news."
The vote is expected to be close.
According to
Reuters, polls conducted by Panelbase, Survation, Opinium, and ICM show support for independence at 48 percent, compared with 52 percent for the union. A fifth poll, by Ipsos MORI, shows it even closer at 49 percent to 51 percent.
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