The current NATO tug of war with Germany about sending additional troops to Afghanistan is surreal. Defense Secretary Gates has stated that Afghanistan is in need of additional troops and he believes that NATO can do more. Currently the heavy lifting is being done in the south of Afghanistan by Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States and not Germany. Germany’s parliament has placed a limit on its participation at a little more than 3,000 troops and insists on having them placed in a relatively safe area of Afghanistan.
I say this is surreal because as this dispute / discussion goes on, the United States has upwards of 70,000 troops stationed in Germany. Germany spends about 1.5%* of its GDP on its military. In contrast, the United Kingdom spends 2.5%* on its military and the United States spends 4%*. These numbers partially are 2006 numbers from www.GlobalSecurity.org .
Why is Germany’s spending a mere 1.5%* of its GDP on its military? Why does the U.S. have upwards of 70,000 troops in Germany? Are we still defending Germany against an assault by Russia – is this likely? The picture is clear. Germany is benefiting from 70,000 U.S. troops on its home soil, spending less of its GDP on military, and will not assist in Afghanistan as needed. Germany seems to be in a take, take situation.
Maybe its time for Germany to defend itself by spending 3%* of its GDP on its military and for the U.S. to redeploy its Germany troops to relieve those troops stretched thin in Afghanistan and other locales. Maybe its time for Secretary Gates and President Bush to tell Germany that they are grown up now and must defend themselves. We need to start pulling troops out of Germany and to stop being dumb about deployment. In fact, maybe it’s time to redeploy all 160,000 troops located in Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Japan. South Korea is spending about 2.5%* of its GDP on its military. Japan is spending less than 1%*. Italy is spending 1.8%*. How broken is our government to allow this spending to continue unabated. Perhaps it is time to require a nation to spend as much of its GDP on its military as we do before we deploy troops to that country. Of course, there are countries incapable of doing this at this time. However, the economies of Germany, Italy, South Korea, and Japan are robust enough that money can be diverted to their military. It certainly appears to me that not only are we paying for their defense, we are also contributing to their economies, and it looks like a one way street.
*All GDP numbers are 2005 estimates from the CIA World Fact Book.
