Pentagon cuts mean US can no longer bail out Nato, defence secretary says

Leon Panetta exhorts allies to work together more or lose ability to mount missions such as that in Libya Budget cuts mean the US will no longer be able to make up for the significant shortfalls that have plagued Nato’s operations in Libya and Afghanistan, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, has warned. He also exhorted allies to work together or risk losing the ability to take on such missions. In a carefully calibrated speech just before the opening of a Nato defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, Panetta praised the joint effort in Libya. But he said the allies must better share the security burden in order to survive global financial pressures that are slicing into defence spending. Panetta, who has held his post for just three months, stopped short of the blistering critique delivered by his predecessor, Robert Gates, in June. Then Gates questioned the alliance’s viability and bluntly warned that it faces a “dim, if not dismal, future” . Panetta echoed many of the same frustrations. “There are legitimate questions about whether, if present trends continue, Nato will again be able to sustain the kind of operations that we have seen in Libya and Afghanistan without the United States taking on even more of the burden,” he told Carnegie Europe . “It would be a tragic outcome if the alliance shed the very capabilities that allowed it to successfully conduct these operations.” With the Pentagon facing $450bn (£290bn) in budget cuts over the next 10 years, allies cannot assume that the US will be able to continue covering Nato’s shortcomings, Panetta said. And with other countries facing similar pressures, he said the countries must co-ordinate cuts and pool their capabilities in order to continue. “We cannot afford for countries to make decisions about force structure and force reductions in a vacuum, leaving neighbours and allies in the dark,” he said. America’s alliance with Europe emerged out of necessity in the cold war era, but it has lost support and many, particularly in the US, question its purpose. But while western states are no longer faced with the threat of a Soviet invasion, they do face escalating terrorist threats, possible cyberwarfare and rising nuclear worries about Iran. These have elevated fears and propelled the alliance into new and changing conflicts. A political awakening rippling across the Middle East has led to uprisings, including the one in Libya. And while the US took a larger role early on in the conflict to protect Libyan citizens, it scaled back its operations as coalition partners – including the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Italy, Canada, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates – took a bigger role. Now, with the ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in hiding and Libya’s rebel forces surrounding his Sirte stronghold, Nato can finally point to fragile progress in the six-month-old mission. France and the UK have now flown a third of the overall sorties and attacked 40% of the targets, Panetta said. The conflict, however, has reinforced the need to involve non-Nato allies to spread the burden. To face the growing threats, Panetta said, Nato must address some of the problems that have dogged the Libya and Afghanistan military campaigns. In Libya, he said, there had been a big shortage of intelligence and surveillance capabilities, including drones and experts who can interpret data and translate it into targeting lists. The US has had to shift drones from other critical regions in order to meet the needs of the Libya mission. Panetta also pointed to shortages of ammunition and supplies as well as refuelling tankers – all gaps the US had to fill. And he repeated US complaints that allies have failed to provide needed trainers and money to the war in Afghanistan. While the Afghan war is being run under Nato’s flag, the US has carried the bulk of the load – deploying nearly 100,000 troops there during the difficult years of the surge in order to counter Taliban violence. The allies, meanwhile, have struggled to maintain a force of about 40,000. “We are at a critical moment for our defence partnership,” Panetta warned, stressing the need for other nations to share the burden. “While these warnings have been acknowledged, growing fiscal pressures on both sides of the Atlantic, I fear, have eroded the political will to do something about them.” H added: “I am convinced that we do not have to choose between fiscal security and national security. “But achieving that goal will test the very future of leadership throughout Nato.” Nato Libya Arab and Middle East unrest Afghanistan Middle East Africa US military US foreign policy Europe guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 5, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.