U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates gives his remarks during the NATO Strategic Concept Seminar held in Lincoln Hall on Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. Feb. 23, 2010 DoD Photo by Master Sgt. Jerry MorrisonGates Calls European Mood A Danger To Peace -- New York Times
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who has long called European contributions to NATO inadequate, said Tuesday that public and political opposition to the military had grown so great in Europe that it was directly affecting operations in Afghanistan and impeding the alliance’s broader security goals.
“The demilitarization of Europe — where large swaths of the general public and political class are averse to military force and the risks that go with it — has gone from a blessing in the 20th century to an impediment to achieving real security and lasting peace in the 21st,” he told NATO officers and officials in a speech at the National Defense University, the Defense Department-financed graduate school for military officers and diplomats.
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My Comment: As much as we in the US ring our heads and shudder at our high budget deficits and budget shortfalls, this pales in comparison to what other European countries are now going through. Europe is going through rough times, and no one expects it to get better.
A culture of entitlement, pervasive Government control and regulation of one's life, economic and business recession (if not depression), has stifled and beaten Europe's sense of international responsibility and commitment to solving international problems. They talk the good talk .... but they are not putting their money down.
We in turn should not be surprised. Their focus is on themselves, and I do not see this changing in the near to long term.