NATO Irrelevance?

The lead article in today’s New York Times, “Gates Delivers a Blunt Warning on NATO Future,” delineates the strains in the alliance as the air war against Libya continues unabated.

The warning, as the United States funds about three-quarters of the organization amid its own budget deficits, includes observations about how the alliance is non-functional in terms of the lack of European capabilities to match AWACs capabilities, refueling in flight and the suppression of air defenses. The United States continues to assume all these functions in military actions.

I found it shocking to learn that the two largest contributors to NATO after the United States, Britain and France, are both contributing less than 10 percent compared to our government. And that makes NATO a mis-named extension supported by American taxpayers rather than a true multilateral organization.

Defense Secretary Gates’ observations in his last policy speech before leaving office were heartfelt and delivered without any hostility towards the reliance. He simply made observations about the coming future of the alliance unless the funding mechanism changed. He also noted that thanks to the role of the alliance in paying for the defense of Europe, these countries were able to afford generous social welfare programs that the United States was not.