America's military alliance with Europe - the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades - faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.
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Excerpts:
Gates has made no secret of his frustration with NATO bureaucracy and the huge restrictions many European governments placed on their military participation in the Afghanistan war. He ruffled NATO feathers early in his tenure with a direct challenge to contribute more front-line troops that yielded few contributions.
Even so, Gates' assessment Friday that NATO is falling down on its obligations and foisting too much of the hard work on the U.S. was unusually harsh and unvarnished. He said both of NATO's main military operations now - Afghanistan and Libya - point up weaknesses and failures within the alliance.
"The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress - and in the American body politic writ large - to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense," he said.
Without naming names, he blasted allies who are "willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets."
The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops based in Europe, not to stand guard against invasion but to train with European forces and promote what for decades has been lacking: the ability of the Europeans to go to war alongside the U.S. in a coherent way.
The war in Afghanistan, which is being conducted under NATO auspices, is a prime example of U.S. frustration at European inability to provide the required resources.
"Despite more than 2 million troops in uniform, not counting the U.S. military, NATO has struggled, at times desperately, to sustain a deployment of 25,000 to 45,000 troops, not just in boots on the ground, but in crucial support assets such as helicopters, transport aircraft, maintenance, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and much more," Gates said.
But reluctance of some European nations to expand defense budgets and take on direct combat has created what amounts to a two-tier alliance: the U.S. military at one level and the rest of NATO on a lower, almost irrelevant plane.
"While every alliance member voted for the Libya mission, less than half have participated, and fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike mission," he said. "Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can't. The military capabilities simply aren't there."
Gate's speaks the truth, and many of those in the US military know it well. The death of European defense is real. For years people have been asking the question, "Who will defend Europe?" and now the 20-year answer is, "Not Europe." With no perceived territorial threats, the continent does not have the means to defend itself, and that is making their "contribution" to NATO and world security less than spectacular. Most European countries have downsized their militaries into mere shadows of their Cold War selves, and operate more as armed social workers than anything.
The way many European countries have cashed in on their peace dividend is staggering. The International Institute for Strategic Studies Military Balance from 1990 and 2010, most European countries now have forces less than half the size they had at the end of the Cold War, and those forces are trending downward. These dramatic declines should force us to ask whether they are capable partners for the US or a drain.
Our NATO allies have the ability to reverse these trends and instead produce a viable partnership. Otherwise, as Gates said, this could spell the demise of NATO.
LINK
Excerpts:
Gates has made no secret of his frustration with NATO bureaucracy and the huge restrictions many European governments placed on their military participation in the Afghanistan war. He ruffled NATO feathers early in his tenure with a direct challenge to contribute more front-line troops that yielded few contributions.
Even so, Gates' assessment Friday that NATO is falling down on its obligations and foisting too much of the hard work on the U.S. was unusually harsh and unvarnished. He said both of NATO's main military operations now - Afghanistan and Libya - point up weaknesses and failures within the alliance.
"The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress - and in the American body politic writ large - to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense," he said.
Without naming names, he blasted allies who are "willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets."
The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops based in Europe, not to stand guard against invasion but to train with European forces and promote what for decades has been lacking: the ability of the Europeans to go to war alongside the U.S. in a coherent way.
The war in Afghanistan, which is being conducted under NATO auspices, is a prime example of U.S. frustration at European inability to provide the required resources.
"Despite more than 2 million troops in uniform, not counting the U.S. military, NATO has struggled, at times desperately, to sustain a deployment of 25,000 to 45,000 troops, not just in boots on the ground, but in crucial support assets such as helicopters, transport aircraft, maintenance, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and much more," Gates said.
But reluctance of some European nations to expand defense budgets and take on direct combat has created what amounts to a two-tier alliance: the U.S. military at one level and the rest of NATO on a lower, almost irrelevant plane.
"While every alliance member voted for the Libya mission, less than half have participated, and fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike mission," he said. "Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can't. The military capabilities simply aren't there."
Gate's speaks the truth, and many of those in the US military know it well. The death of European defense is real. For years people have been asking the question, "Who will defend Europe?" and now the 20-year answer is, "Not Europe." With no perceived territorial threats, the continent does not have the means to defend itself, and that is making their "contribution" to NATO and world security less than spectacular. Most European countries have downsized their militaries into mere shadows of their Cold War selves, and operate more as armed social workers than anything.
The way many European countries have cashed in on their peace dividend is staggering. The International Institute for Strategic Studies Military Balance from 1990 and 2010, most European countries now have forces less than half the size they had at the end of the Cold War, and those forces are trending downward. These dramatic declines should force us to ask whether they are capable partners for the US or a drain.
Our NATO allies have the ability to reverse these trends and instead produce a viable partnership. Otherwise, as Gates said, this could spell the demise of NATO.
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