"Future U.S. political leaders - those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me - may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost," he told a European think tank on the final day of an 11-day overseas journey.
Ouch. There's more.
"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."
Think he's done? Hardly. The math that he lays down is astounding.
"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.
By: Brant
I think Gates makes some excellent comments on a number of key areas and perhaps begs a greater question: is it time to say goodbye to NATO? While there absolutely is a need for current and future multi-national missions, shouldn't we be looking to re-organize those efforts via a new lens? Certainly the cold-war paradigms serve little value, today.
ReplyDeletePerhaps instead of regional security organizations we could create functional ones, like "Them What Has A Need For Pirate-Free Shipping Lanes in the Indian Ocean" (or TWHANFPFSLITIO, for short).
The problem is that warfare and conflict are no longer regionally or ideologically bound constructs, nor are the combatants. Maybe our defense organizations should adapt to that. Remember that old saw "the customer is always right?" If our customer is our enemy...then we should be preparing to meet what they want, now.
Jack Nastyface