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Gates Tells NATO Members They Must Pay Fair Share

   Sean Maroney | Brussels  June 10, 2011
   U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a Security and
   Defense Agenda event at the Biblioteque Solvay in Brussels on Friday,
   June 10, 2011

Photo: AP

   U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a Security and
   Defense Agenda event at the Biblioteque Solvay in Brussels on Friday,
   June 10, 2011

   U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates cautioned NATO allies Friday that
   they need to share more of the burden in the more than 60-year-old
   transatlantic alliance. His comments came during his last policy speech
   before stepping down as defense secretary at the end of the month.
   Speaking Friday in what has been billed as his last policy speech
   before retiring June 30, Gates reminded the coalition of his past
   concerns that NATO would become a two-tier 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,' said Gates.
   Gates pointed to the ongoing operations in Libya as an example. He said
   that even though all 28 NATO members voted for the mission against
   Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, less than half have participated and
   fewer than a third have been willing to participate in the strike
   mission.
   He blamed this on dwindling resources.
   '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,' he said.
   Gates quoted one estimate that total European defense spending has
   fallen by nearly 15 percent in the decade since the September 11, 2001,
   terrorist attacks on the United States.
   He said this has affected Afghanistan - the first 'hot' ground war in
   NATO history.
   'Despite more than two 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,' he said.
   He said NATO allies must take a united way out of Afghanistan and not
   operate on their own timelines determined by domestic financial
   pressures.
   But as the U.S. military considers billions of dollars in spending cuts
   to ease Washington's own growing deficit, Gates warned that future U.S.
   politicians - not shaped during the Cold War like him - might not
   consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost.

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