Don't stop there!

I suspect the defense secretary is somewhat enjoying the liberty associated with his imminent departure:

America's military alliance with Europe - the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades - faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address...

"The blunt reality is that there will be dwindling appetite and patience in the U.S. Congress - and in the American body politic writ large - to expend increasingly precious funds on behalf of nations that are apparently unwilling to devote the necessary resources or make the necessary changes to be serious and capable partners in their own defense," he said.

To illustrate his concerns about Europe's lack of appetite for defense, Gates noted the difficulty NATO has encountered in carrying out an air campaign in Libya.

"The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country, yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the U.S., once more, to make up the difference," he said.

In a question-and-answer session with his audience after the speech, Gates, 67, said his generation's "emotional and historical attachment" to NATO is "aging out."

He said he is not sure what this means in practical terms. But if Europeans want to keep a security link to the U.S. in the future, he said, "the drift of the past 20 years can't continue."

Translation/summary: a century after becoming entangled in European affairs via the ill-advised decision to enter the "war to end all wars" (how'd THAT work out, by the way?), the U.S. is tired of carrying the Old Continent on its back.  We have plenty of problems to solve at home; we can't afford (literally) to subsidize the lack of discipline and poor prioritization of other nations.

I'm glad to have a U.S. official on the record with such remarks.  I only wish they were a more serious indicator of policy change than I suspect they are.  After all, we're promising to bail out Greece again, and despite the critique of our partner's efforts in Libya (how many 'days' have we been there now?), we continue to make up the deficit in capability... all while fully engaged in multiple conflicts of our own.

We are at a point in history where even if America wanted to remain the 'generous,' benevolent hegemon-in-all-but-name, it is beyond our ability to do so.  Decades of decisions are bearing their bitter fruit, and retrenchment is inevitable.  The sooner others figure that out, the less volatile the transition has to be...