I was struck by this remark from Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, quoted at The National Interest:
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is reaffirming that NATO remains the United States’ most important alliance. That is despite a perception that the Trump Administration is skeptical of the alliance.
“NATO remains our number-one alliance. So I spent a fair amount of time on that effort at EUCOM. Obviously heartened coming out of the NATO ministerial would be an understatement, but the continued climbing of the defense budgets,†Mattis told reporters on Feb. 17.
Given European militaries’ state of preparedness and how little the Germans in particular spend on improving their situation, I’d say it looks more like Number 2.
To be a bit more explicit there are only five militaries in the world at the highest level of readiness, as the U. S. military calculates these things: U. S., Russia, China, India, and France. France is just barely at the highest level of readiness.
… and France.
France did not have the military resources to fight Libya. Had Obama not jumped-in, the Libyan would have ended quickly.
The only thing saving Europe is that Russia does not have the military resources to advance past Eastern Europe. Russian military is all nukes, but I think they are rebuilding their submarine fleet.
Contrary to our experts, the US has little offensive capacity. The US Navy may be able to dominate the sea, but there are few navies still navigating the open waters.
And yet they’ve been able to prosecute a war in Mali over an extended period. I agree that skepticism of France’s capabilities is warranted.
From here, Mattis’s remarks sound about what you’d expect. Never embarrass a friend in public, insert standard NATO paragraph 3, DOD paragraph 9, in the spiel, etc.
@Dave Schuler
… Mali …
I am not sure what the mix is between the French regular army and the Foreign Legion, but the Legionnaires are ‘not to be trifled with’.
If you ate what they ate, you’d be regular, too. 😉