Can NATO Get Its ACT Together? Alliance's Only US-Based Command Takes On New Role

[unhappycamper]

http://defense.aol.com/2012/12/14/can-nato-get-its-act-together-alliances-only-us-based-command/



Can NATO Get Its ACT Together? Alliance's Only US-Based Command Takes On New Role
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
Published: December 14, 2012

HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED COMMAND TRANSFORMATION, NORFOLK, VIRGINIA: A new era is dawning for NATO -- though no one knows quite what it means. Now Allied Command Transformation, the only NATO organization headquartered on US soil, is driving an overhaul of how the alliance trains, strategizes, and shares the burden among its increasingly cash-strapped members in a post-Afghanistan, post-"Pacific pivot" world.

That's a tough task when NATO must make do with what its 28 member nations choose to contribute, each on its own terms. In Afghanistan, some NATO contingents have fought hard -- France has lost 86 troops, Canada 158, Britain 438 -- but others have been largely kept out of combat by "caveats" imposed by their home countries. In Libya, a European-led operation helped oust Muammar Gaddafi but struggled with intelligence-sharing and shortages of smart bombs. And back in Europe, the alliance has struggled since 2003 to stand up a 13,000-strong crisis-response unit called the NATO Response Force, NRF

The NRF is short of helicopters, command-and-control equipment, force protection gear, and "there is no logistic tail present ever," one frustrated European general told over 240 officers from 52 nations, both NATO members and partners, at ACT's annual Chiefs of Transformation Conference in Norfolk, Va. (I and two other reporters were allowed to attend on the condition that we did not identify participants by name).

"Nobody in this room is going to tell me we don't have this shit in our inventory," the general fumed. "It's all about will to commit."

[ROBROX]

1. TIME FOR WORLD WAR III

These guys just don't give up with their WARRING. One war is coming to an end and they are talking about the NEXT war. This vet knows the paper pushing officers just want metals and cute uniforms. If they were pushing a broom it would be so different. Plus the slobs are all over paid to sit around and boss the workers and fighters.