GATES READS RIOT ACT TO EUROPE – AT 10:06 A.M. ET:  Speaking of differences between the United States and Europe (see post just below), Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has read the riot act to our European dependencies. 

Gates's comments were largely overlooked, but are quite stunning, coming from an administration that values, or says it values, the soft touch: 

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has long called European contributions to NATO inadequate, said Tuesday that public and political opposition to the military had grown so great in Europe that it was directly affecting operations in Afghanistan and impeding the alliance’s broader security goals.

You know NATO?  That's the alliance where an attack on one is considered an attack on all, but an attack on the United States is considered a little less important than an attack on the others.

"The demilitarization of Europe — where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it — has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st,” he told NATO officers and officials in a speech at the National Defense University, the Defense Department-financed graduate school for military officers and diplomats.

I'm glad some American official actually said this.  Many informed Americans have thought it for years.

A perception of European weakness, he warned, could provide a “temptation to miscalculation and aggression” by hostile powers.

He means Iran, and even a resurgent Russia.  NATO was formed in 1949, a reflection of the lessons learned from the failure to prevent World War II.  Those lessons are being forgotten as the generation that learned them fades away. 

Mr. Gates’s blunt comments came just three days after the coalition government of the Netherlands collapsed in a dispute over keeping Dutch troops in Afghanistan. It now appears almost certain that most of the 2,000 Dutch troops there will be withdrawn this year. And polls show that the Afghanistan war has grown increasingly unpopular in nearly every European country.

Gee, wasn't Europe supposed to become increasingly supportive of the United States once The One took office and cast his magic spell?  Maybe Obama has had some positive effect in Europe, but of course 14-year-olds can't vote.

Dana Allin, a senior fellow with the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, called Mr. Gates’s remarks “very striking.”

“Whether this is a conscious statement to sound a real sharp warning, there’s no question that the frustration among the American military establishment is palpable regarding coalition operations in Afghanistan,” he said.

COMMENT:  As usual, it's the U.S., the Brits, the Canadians, and the Australians who bear the brunt.  At some point some Europeans will try to call Washington in a crisis, and no one will answer the phone.

Gates spoke wisely.

February 24, 2010