MILITARY: Allies Need to Do Their Share

The war in Kosovo revealed the continuing reliance our allies have on U.S. military forces--and consequently their reliance on our continuing to spend far more of our tax dollars on our military than they spend in taxes on theirs. It is time for our allies around the world to step up and bear their share of the defense burden.

Fifty years ago, it made sense for the United States to carry the bulk of the responsibility for defending Europe. At the end of World War II, our allies’ economies and armies were in shambles. At the same time, the Soviets were consolidating their control over the Eastern Bloc and were a viable military threat to the rest of continent.

The United States did the honorable thing: We sent our troops and weapons to the front lines, ready to repel any attack. Meanwhile, our allies invested in their schools, roads and factories (also with our help). The costs to our nation were high, but the American people were willing to make the short-term sacrifices needed to secure a lasting peace.

After nearly 50 years of a tense peace in Europe, the landscape has changed completely. The Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc are vanquished. The Europeans have been able to invest so much in their economies that last year the European Union’s combined Gross Domestic Product was more than $1 trillion greater than our own. And by relying on us for their defense, the Europeans have been able to invest far more in educating their children; their students now routinely outperform our own in upper-level reading and math tests.

Now that our allies are on their feet, why do we continue to spend more than twice as much per person on defense as in the average NATO country? Billions of American taxpayer dollars are spent stationing troops around the world (it costs more than $10 billion a year just to keep our troops in Europe), and billions more are spent keeping aircraft carrier battle groups in every corner of the globe ready to intervene at a moment’s notice. Some of this is for self-defense, but much of it is to reassure our allies.

The war in Kosovo illustrated the problem perfectly. Even though the conflict was European, the NATO forces were commanded by a U.S. general and the U.S. provided 70% of the aircraft used.

The war made clear that European nations need to invest more in their defense forces, particularly in high-tech weapons like smart bombs and cruise missiles.

Thankfully, leaders in France, Germany and England already are talking about the need for Europe to do better at defending itself. U.S. leaders should support every effort our allies make to strengthen their own forces.

As for the United States, we should bring home at least half of our troops and invest more in our own people.