NATO nations get blunt advice by outgoing Defence Secretary Robert Gates

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates speaks during a Security and Defense Agenda event at the Biblioteque Solvay in Brussels on Friday, June 10, 2011. In his final policy speech as Pentagon chief, Gates questioned the viability of NATO, saying its members' penny-pinching and lack of political will could hasten the end of U.S. support. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949 as a U.S.-led bulwark against Soviet aggression, but in the post-Cold War era it has struggled to find a purpose.

Story by New York Times
Written by Thom Shanker and Steven Erlanger
Photo by AP's Virginia Mayo

BRUSSELS -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates criticized NATO nations Friday for what he said were shortages of military spending and political will, warning of "a dim if not dismal future" and "irrelevance" for the alliance unless more member nations contribute weapons, money and personnel.

In his final policy speech before he steps down, Gates issued a dire and unusually direct warning that the United States, the traditional leader and patron of the alliance, was exhausted by a decade of war and its own mounting budget deficits and simply might not see NATO as worth supporting any longer.

"The blunt reality," Gates said, "is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. 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."

The White House made clear Friday that in the tough tone of his remarks, Gates was speaking for the Pentagon, not necessarily for the administration, and that he appeared to be expressing his own frustrations after years of asking NATO to do more. But a White House official did say that Gates' speech raised "legitimate concerns" about whether NATO was providing enough resources for the war and that the Obama administration fully expected the alliance to meet its challenges.

The United States accounts for about three-quarters of total military spending by all NATO countries, and it has in the past taken the lead in military operations and provided the bulk of the weapons and material. But in a post-Soviet world, there is growing resentment in Washington about NATO effectively paying for the defense of wealthy European nations.

Those strains have deepened considerably during the air war against Libya's leader, Moammar Gadhafi, the first NATO-run multilateral war where Washington has pulled back from a leadership role.

The strains come from varying commitments to the war from different NATO countries, the difficulties of coordinating air attacks, deficiencies of aircraft and ammunition and the cost of the operation, which is going on longer than many countries, including France, expected when it began March 19.

Although NATO ambassadors attended Gates' speech, the reaction was muted, and there was little response from NATO capitals, which have heard similar criticisms from Gates before, though not in such candid terms.

"But people should take note," one NATO ambassador said. "This is not just an old curmudgeon leaving office. He cares about the alliance and says you need to start investing in it."

NATO's shortcomings have long been the subject of black humor in Afghanistan, where U.S. military officers sometimes refer to the official NATO command -- called the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF -- as "I Saw Americans Fighting."

"The Europeans enjoy generous social welfare programs in part because the United States subsidizes their defense spending," said Andrew M. Exum of the Center for a New American Security, a military research organization, who was an Army infantry officer in Afghanistan in 2002 and 2004.

Britain and France rank second and third within NATO on defense spending, after the United States. But Britain's military budget is only about 7.7 percent of Washington's. France's is about 6.6 percent.