Europe warned to overhaul military forces

[Judi Lynn]

Europe warned to overhaul military forces

13/10/2005 - 8:45:01 AM

European defence ministers will seek today to push forward efforts to modernise their forces a day after an influential Washington think-tank warned they must urgently overhaul the military to defend Europe’s interests against terrorists, failed states and regional crises.

The report, drafted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said continued European inability to face up to 21st Century threats could undermine the Atlantic alliance as America’s military might increasingly dwarfs that of its NATO allies.

“Failure to meaningfully improve Europe’s collective defence capabilities in the coming years would have profoundly negative impacts on the ability of European countries to protect their interests, the viability of NATO as an alliance and the ability of European countries to partner the US in any meaningful way” warned former German defence chief Gen. Klaus Naumann and US Gen. Joseph Ralston, NATO’s top commander in Europe until 2003.

European nations have been working through NATO and the EU to build up their defence capacity in recent years, but the report yesterday said European governments – often hamstrung by budget constraints – have failed to move forward fast enough.
(snip/...)

http://www.eecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=158991200&p=y5899y9x6&n=158991960

[MADem]

1. Report is a hundred pages, and it is online now

http://www.csis.org/isp/0510_eurodefensereport.pdf

A bit dry, but the executive summary starts on P 9 and is seven pages total. Essentially, they say they must hang together or hang separately. The focus on terra is one thing, but you have to wonder if the elephant lurking outside the room, to threaten them down the road, is in fact China.

[teryang]

2. Maybe they should emulate our strategic diaster in Iraq

Maybe they should undermine their standard of living by stripping their governments social services in favor of defense contractors and war profiteers. Maybe they could go bankrupt like us following extreme rightest ideological visions. Maybe they should get their asses kicked and ruin their economies by starting wars in Asia.

Taking advice from our failing belligerent regime would be extremely unwise.

[teryang]

3. Wesley Clark on the subject

<"We've got to very quickly take the military out of the lead role in every action we take around the world," Clark told the forum crowd at UMW's Dodd Auditorium. "Our military's overstretched and overcommitted right now. And there's only so much our country can accomplish by killing people," he said to the cheers of some in the audience. >

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1846184

[Athame]

4. Exactly. n/t

[brainshrub]

5. Europe has been kicking ass for 1500 years.

They don't need a Washington think-tank to tell them how to maintain an army.

[MildyRules]

8. That's why they were so effective

in stopping the slaughter in Bosnia...

[hogwyld]

6. The Euro's have it right

Their spending priorities are with their people. Can you imagine if we disbanded our military, and used that 400 Billion dollars elsewhere? We would have national healthcare, childcare for working mothers, improved schools, infrastructural improvements. Can you imagine 100B a year to alternative energy research? We wouldn't need a military because we could give a shit about middle eastern oil.

[enigma000]

9. Disband the US military?

Now THAT would get the Europeans spending money on the military again. Heck, I bet half the EU would have a nuke development program running the day after the announcement.

[hogwyld]

11. Buy Why?

They have no Soviet Union to fear anymore. I don't think they should be afraid of being invaded by Syria. I just don't see them wasting their money on more guns, when they need to care for their people.

[enigma000]

12. Potential threats exist

China is run by xenophobic neo-fascists
Iran is run by theocrats out of the 12th century
Russia is one coup-d'etat from being a police state
Peacekeepers are always needed in wartorn states and to deliver aid in disaster zones

The world isn't a progressive place. A military just isn't for offense.

[reprobate]

7. Centre for Strategic and International Studies,

It's a right wing think tank. Particularly interested in controlling the world's oil regions.

http://www.csis.org/about/index.htm#4

[underpants]

10. the ever lucid Christopher Hutchins called CSIS "junk science"

on Bill Mahr. I took that as an endorsement.