Robert Gates fires US-Nato warning shot

He's got a point. NATO is closely reaching it's shelf life.

An EU military, especially an EU navy, might be a better bet for Europe, and it would allow us to focus on issues in the western hemisphere.

NATO is obsolescent.

I would agree. NATO'S whole purpose was to be a deterrent to the Warsaw Pact. The majority of people on the planet today, probaly do not even know what the Warsaw Pact was. These days the greatest threat to Europe probaly comes from the debt of several members of the E.U. countries threatening to drag the rest of the E.U. down. Several E.U. countries have internal threats from homegrown or immigrant terrorists as well. Neither of these threats would be something that NATO could deal with. The threat of outside aggression invading any European country is almost nil in this day and age.

As an American,I had no problem supporting this campaign in Libya at first. [personaly I could not care either way, and would prefer that the Libyans fight it out themselves} I feel that the U.K. has been a great ally to the States. They went with us into Desert Storm, Afganistan, and this latest fiasco in Iraq. If they should ever ask for military aid from the States, I do not feel that we are in a position to refuse. Even if this whole conflict is about keeping the cost of petrol down, I still would not refuse a request from an invaluable ally like the U.K. Whatever they felt that they needed would be ok in my book.

My problem is with a lot of the other NATO countries that signed on for this deal,and then just petered out. Canada is not located in Europe. Canada does not get its oil from Libya, and yet Canada is doing more for this operation than many European countries that do get their oil supply from Libya. It hardly seems fair to me. For years I have been hearing stories about how the Warsaw Pact was all smoke and mirrors. They were bums. Their kit was trash. I am starting to think that the Warsaw Pact could have rolled through Western Europe in a matter of days.90% of NATO would have surrendered in the first few days , just like 1940. Mabey Britain could have held out. The rest of Europe? Forget about it! NATO cannot beat some tinhorn thug in some third world shithole like Libya, Yet we were suppossed to triumph over a country that was willing to lose 20 million in one war? NATO is starting to look like smoke and mirrors to me. I say stick a fork in it,its done. Its time to draw up some new aliances that more acurately reflect the modern world.