NATO is No Go Without American Power

At Wall Street Journal, "NATO Strikes Show Europe Defense Dilemma":

The military campaign over Libya has delivered a serious blow to a project long nurtured at the heart of the European Union: a European military capability independent of the U.S., defense analysts and officials say.

For years, the EU sought to build what came to be called its Common Security and Defense Policy as some nations, led by France, wanted the freedom to act militarily without Washington's interference.

For Paris, this meant creating a military command structure and forces separate from the U.S.-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization. This vision has never come close to fruition, not least because the U.S. and U.K. saw it as duplicating NATO's role.

Ironically, it was the first-ever NATO military operation to be led by Europeans, with the U.S. deciding to take a back seat, that suggests that ambition may never be fulfilled.

Central to this has been the move in 2009 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to reverse the 1966 decision of President Charles de Gaulle and reintegrate France into NATO's military command.

On Wednesday evening, Mr. Sarkozy told assembled diplomats in Paris that NATO "has shown itself to be an indispensable tool in the service of our military operations." The success of military operations over Libya was possible because France had reassumed its position in NATO's military command, he said.

More at that top link.

Madeleine Albright once called the U.S. the "indispensable nation", and for all of our difficulties, world events keep proving it over and over.