US rattling the cage within NATO

[ecuworrier]

The US has propped up NATO for long enough... the cold war is ended....  surely it's time for Europe to stand on its own two military feet?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/10/nato-dismal-future-pentagon-chief

but are we ready to?

GOD BLESS!

Peace and Love,

[AndyHB]

The question isn't 'are we ready to', ecu.  It's 'can we afford to'.  Europe, even if it became a federated super-state, is becoming increasingly sidelined in real global terms.  I realise that Europe clings to status positions such as membership of the G8 and the UN Security Council, but many question whether they ought to continue to have such influence, when there are larger and stronger economies in other parts of the world.

[AndrewF]

That is a bit disingenuous Andy. In Europe we put a far smaller part of GDP  into defence than the USA do - something like half.
Now personally I believe that is right - in fact I think we still spend *more* than we should on this - but what the USA are quite rightly saying is that if we want them to continue as before then we have to be prepared to pull our weight to the same extent that they do in * %age * terms, which is a reasonable comment. On top of that there are political problems with whether EU countries contribute just cash or troops and if the later whether they are fully combat-trained and -hardened or simply support personnel. Add to that the fact that the North Atlantic threat is no longer  major problem 9since the break-up of the USSR) and you begin to wonder if NATO actually *does* still have any legs...