Top NATO Commander: U.S. Troops May Be Sent To Eastern Europe

[Boreal]

54. Europeans haven't been too keen

on wanting to cough up the money for military stuff and NATO has been complaining about this for a long time. Hysteria about Russian invasions (fear mongering) should fix that. Some background:


Jun 10, 2011

“There will be dwindling appetite and patience in the United States 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,” Gates said.

Gates issued the warning as both continents struggle with the remains of the global recession and President Barack Obama seeks $400 billion in defense spending cuts over 12 years to reduce the deficit. While Gates and NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen have cautioned European members not to reduce defense spending further, the implicit threat that the U.S. may withdraw support for the alliance marks a hardening of the U.S. position.

Rasmussen last year said European defense risked becoming a “paper tiger.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-10/gates-says-european-defense-spending-lag-risks-rendering-nato-irrelevant.html



WASHINGTON, May 6, 2013 – NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned today that further cuts in defense spending by European nations risk reducing the continent’s defense and security to “hot air,” turning the alliance into what he called a “global spectator” rather than a real force on the world stage.

“The only way to avoid this is by holding the line on defense spending and to start reinvesting in security as soon as our economies recover,” he told a meeting in Brussels of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Rasmussen said European nations should not become absorbed by their own domestic issues, including sluggish economies that have contributed to defense cuts, and instead develop a “truly global perspective” to respond to crises further away from home.

“Having the right capabilities is important, but it is not enough,” he said. “We must also have the political will to use them, to deal with security challenges on Europe’s doorstep, to help manage crises further away that might affect us here at home, and to better share the security burden with our North American allies.”

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It was the latest in a series of warnings over the past several years by Rasmussen that further cuts by European governments in defense spending could put NATO’s viability at risk. In 2011, Rasmussen said the trend suggested the continent was headed toward getting out of the security business entirely, pointing out that European nations had cut their defense budgets by $45 billion - the equivalent of Germany’s entire annual defense budget - while U.S contributions to NATO had increased from about half of total alliance spending to close to 75 percent.

http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=119940