BBC News reports that “UK armed forces cuts will limit the country’s ability to be a major player on the world stage, ex-US defense secretary Robert Gates has warned.”

“The UK plans to cut 30,000 armed forces personnel by 2020, leaving 147,000.

“The prime minister said Mr Gates was wrong and that the UK was a ‘first class-player in terms of defense.'”

“Mr Gates also questioned whether ‘artificial’ states in the Middle East ‘like Libya, Iraq and Syria can be held together absent of repression.'”