Posted on 06/10/2011 3:45:40 AM PDT by tobyhill
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates bluntly criticized NATO nations on Friday for what he said were shortages in military spending and political will, warning of “a dim if not dismal future” for an alliance at risk of becoming irrelevant in a dangerous and uncertain world.
Mr. Gates slammed NATO nations for failing to meet their commitments in Afghanistan — or for imposing sweeping restrictions on those forces they do send — which he said hobbled the mission.
And despite NATO’s decision to take command of the air war in Libya, the alliance is running out of bombs after just 11 weeks, he said. The operation would fall apart without a continued large infusion of American support, Mr. Gates added, since other NATO nations have not invested in the weapons required to carry out lengthy combat operations.
Perhaps most significantly, Mr. Gates issued a dire warning that the United States, exhausted by a decade of war and dreading its own mounting budget deficits, simply may not see NATO as worth supporting any longer.
“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,” Mr. Gates said.
He was dismissive of some NATO partners as “nations apparently willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Get the US out of NATO and the UN and kick the UN out of the USA.
Uncle Sap is broke. Bring our forces home from post-WWII and S.Korean bases. We can no longer carry Socialist countries on our back, because our own Socialist president has spent us into the poor house.
Couldn’t have said it more specific Alaska
100% Agree. The only bases we need are Japanese,SK ones for monitoring of the chicoms, and Israel. Europe hates us no matter what. Leave them to their own devices we need nothing they produce. Let them bow to Uncle Vlad(lol they own the germans with energy) and the muslims hordes. Im sick of their endless dissing of the US.
My favorite song... SING IT!!!
LLS
NATO outlived its own usefulness decades ago. It was Uncle Sugar with the big conventional forces and nuclear umbrella that allowed the euro-weenies to have their socialist paradises. It is past time for the euro-weenies to grow up or go under as the muzzies take over.
Sorry to say it because I have many European friends, but THEIR GUMMINTS SUCK as much as ours does. Why in the world would we demand that NATO commit troops to Obama’s war in Afghanistan other than that we don’t want to pay for it? Hmmm? It’s past time for an amicable divorce. Let the EU defend itself.
We are being weakened on purpose with no outrage from the left. We r headed for an entire collapse. BO is getting his agenda accomplished, or should I say, his pupeteer’s agenda. Sometimes it seems futile in waking people up to the obvious. PRAY.
Absolutely.
Easiest $$$$ the US ever saved.
That land in NY is prime real e$$$tate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.