NATO is a vast headquarters with few non-American troops that are combat ready. I was recently horrified to see that Germany's ground forces are down to two division-sized units plus special forces and airborne elements, totaling fewer than 60,000 troops. I hadn't realized how far they'd fallen. And everyone else is cutting back.
So this won't have much of an effect:
NATO’s chief is worried that the alliance lacks military readiness in crucial areas and is urging European members to do more, Germany’s Spiegel news weekly reported Sunday, citing an internal document.
Europe could start by eliminating their ambitions to have an EU military force separate from NATO. After that, I just want Europe to be able to defend themselves, be capable of handling problems within a thousand miles of their border, and be able to contribute small contingents of air, naval, and especially ground forces trained and equipped to operate under one of our headquarters for more distant missions:
Could we convince our European allies to simply abandon their militaries above the brigade or squadron level and ask them to organize and equip ground battalions and brigades that plug into our brigades and divisions, with our higher level units taking care of logistics and command? Could the Europeans send squadrons to fight as part of our air wings, which we move and support logistically? And plug individual ships into our task forces that we supply on the move?
NATO isn't going to reverse course, regain military capabilities by spending more, and become the NATO we'd like to have. Asking them to do so will just alienate them. It would be far better to persuade them to spend whatever they want to spend on defense but in a manner that allows them to have some high quality capabilities that can be volunteered for a coalition of the willing led by America. I've always preferred help, however limited, willingly given than more capabilities drafted from resentful allies.
Face it, the Libya War was the apex of "leading from behind" by relying on Europe.
