Sarkozy Says Gates’ Libya Comments Words of a ‘Bitter’ Man
June 24, 2011, 6:58 PM EDTBy Helene Fouquet
(Updates with U.S. response in seventh paragraph.)
June 24 (Bloomberg) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy criticized comments by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the limited role of Europe in NATO’s Libya mission as the remarks of someone about to retire who’s “bitter.”
The U.S. isn’t doing “most of the job” in Libya, Sarkozy told reporters in Brussels today after a European Union summit. “I doubt someone as intelligent and responsible as Obama will say the U.S. is doing most of the job in Libya, so it was particularly inappropriate from Gates, and totally wrong.”
Gates, in a June 10 speech in Brussels before leaving office later this month, warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization risks “collective military irrelevance” unless U.S. allies contribute more to the alliance’s operations. He said less than half of NATO 28 allies were taking part in the Libya mission and fewer than a third were willing to deploy forces to make strikes on Libyan targets.
“Frankly, many of those allies sitting on the sidelines do so not because they do not want to participate, but simply because they can’t,” Gates said in his speech. “The military capabilities simply aren’t there.” Allies lack intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, he said.
Sarkozy led European states including the U.K. into beginning strikes on Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Qaddafi on March 19 after a United Nations Security Council resolution authorized action to protect Libyan civilians. NATO agreed to take over the mission on March 27.
“Mr. Gates is going into retirement and it seems like he isn’t liking it, so you cannot blame someone who is going into retirement and is a little bitter,” Sarkozy said.
Geoff Morrell, a spokesman for Gates, said he and the secretary declined to comment.
‘Two-Tiered Alliance’
Gates, in his farewell speech, said NATO has become a “two-tiered alliance” with some members pulling their weight and deploying combat troops and others who specialize in “soft humanitarian, development, peacekeeping and talking tasks.”
“This is no longer a hypothetical worry,” he said. “We are there today. And it is unacceptable.”
The U.S. provides two-thirds of the almost 150,000 NATO-led troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. share of NATO defense spending has risen to more than 75 percent from 50 percent during the Cold War, Gates said.
Meanwhile, total European defense spending has dropped 15 percent since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S., according to one estimate and only five of the 28 NATO allies exceed the agreed standard of spending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, Gates said, naming the U.S., the U.K, France, Greece and Albania.
--With assistance from Viola Gienger in Washington. Editors: Terry Atlas, Steven Komarow
To contact the reporter on this story: Helene Fouquet in Brussels at hfouquet1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net
