Note from the AFA President: NATO in Afghanistan

AFA members, Congressional Staff members, civic leaders, DOCA members, this past week Sec Gates has made some tough-love statements about NATO's willingness to step up to troop needs in Afghanistan.  The press has covered the statements well and sometimes pointedly. 

Regardless, I thought it would be useful to go a bit deeper into the Secretary's concerns and see what the data say.  The result is this chart:  http://www.afa.org/members/CommTools/apa/Daily_Airpower_Articles/Xl0000063.pdf 

Some observations about the chart: 

• NATO's (without the US) GDP is about $2T more than the US.
• Their population (without the US) is almost double the US.
• They have about one million more troops than the US
• But they provide only about 1/3 as many troops for Afghanistan as the US.

You can draw your own conclusions, but … it seems Sec Gates' points were supported by the data.

For your consideration.

Mike

Michael M. Dunn
President/CEO
Air Force Association