Gates: NATO Flunking the Afghan Test
Robert Gates had some harsh words for NATO earlier today. Speaking at the National Defense University about the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Secretary Gates argued that NATO needs to completely go back to the drawing board and re-examine several parts of its organizational structure so that it won't become a "renaissance weekend on steroids." He encouraged the organization to modernize, noting that "No one is trying to reinvent the wheel” and stressed the urgency of dealing with its “excess infrastructure and outdated command centers." If it doesn't, Gates said without a hint of irony that "NATO will not be worth the paper it is printed on."
Gates' didn't focus on Afghanistan, stating that “we have to do better, not just in Afghanistan, but elsewhere." But the urgency with which Gates spoke today no doubt was bolstered by NATO's latest hiccup, which came in the form of the collapse of the Dutch government over the presence of Dutch troops in Afghanistan. The Afghan operation represents the first real post-Cold War test of the collective defense organization. America's allies will have only 40,000 troops combined in Afghanistan at the end of the summer. Many of these troops have restrictions that limit their exposure to potential combat situations, which hinders NATO commanders ability to deploy them effectively.
The complete inability of many NATO allies, specifically European allies like Germany, to be able to rouse the domestic political support necessary to contribute meaningfully to the cause (The United States will have 90,000 troops fighting by the end of the summer) raises profound questions about the organization's capacity to carry out its collective defense mission. So while he may not have come right out and said it, this may be the sort of thing Gates had in mind when he warned of the possibility of Nato's “not being worth the paper its written on.”