NATO Member States Should Boost Defense Spending

Fire of Liberty

According to this article from The Financial Times, General James Jones who is US Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (Our guy at NATO) has wrapped the fingers of the some member nations of NATO who refuse to raise their defense budgets. Just look at what Gen. Jones had to say to the various defense ministers on their reluctance to beef up their budgets:

"Sadly for the alliance most nations are slipping behind the so-called gentleman's agreement at [Nato's 2002 summit in] Prague," said Gen Jones, who is also the US's most senior soldier in Europe. "The 2 per cent floor is becoming a ceiling."

A recent French investigation found that France and Britain accounted for nearly half of all European spending on military equipment over the past three years. France and Britain are also two of only four European countries that spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence, compared with over 3 per cent in the US.

Gen Jones charged that several countries had failed to improve defence capabilities, focusing on cost saving rather than on creating forces that are easier to deploy.

"Even in countries where they are trying to call it [defence] transformation, some of them are not just reducing their forces but also their budgets . . . That is not transformation in my mind," he said.

It's sad that the nations who argue that the US needs to be more multilateral and consult them more are so cheap in picking up the slack. I guess that's what happens when they have the US on speed-dial if a disaster sprouts up.

Update: After reading more reports in The Financial Times on the defense budgets of the 26 NATO member nations, I discovered who has been drifting below the gentelman's promise of 2% that Gen. Jones mentioned.

Below 2% - Czech Republic, Italy and Norway.

2% or Above - Bulgaria, France, Greece, Romania, Turkey, UK and the US.

I just hope that the other 19 nations will find it in their best interests to straigtin' up and flight right by increase their defense expenditures, especially with missions like an airlift of some 5,000 African troops to Darfur and peacekeeping in Afghanistan.