Outgoing US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder issued a statement today faulting European nations for responding to their budget crises by cutting military spending, insisting that they are “hollowing out” their militaries and “failing to spend their existing budgets wisely.”
The statement echoes other Obama Administration statements in recent months about NATO member nations cutting military spending at the expense of being able to participate in current and future US wars.
Daalder, who has held the position of NATO envoy since 2009, warned that the US now amounts to 75 percent of all NATO military spending, and that if the trend continues, the US will no longer be able to consider Europe a ‘viable’ partner in offensive wars.
Most EU nations have been forced to make difficult budget decisions, and they have involved cutting military spending. Still, five of the top 10 most expensive militaries on the planet are NATO member nations, and they are only small in comparison to America’s own ridiculously high Pentagon budget, which is 39% of the whole planet’s expenses. Meanwhile the US budget deficit continues to be ignored by officials, who warn that even slight cuts to that spending is unacceptable.
