Liam Fox attacks NATO allies for shirking cost of common defence

Bloomberg's Kitty Donaldson reports that Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox will attack NATO today for failing to share the collective burden of defence:

“For NATO to work properly as a security alliance in the post Cold War world, NATO members must have the willingness to take equal risks with regards to supplying troops and equipment” and also “the willingness to financially fund and sustain these operations,” Fox will say. “Why should the few carry the many; common security implies common commitment,” Fox will say, according to the text. “It is quite wrong for everyone in the street to get the same insurance policy when only a few pay the premiums.”

Also on the attack, in the Daily Mail, is Tory MP Adam Holloway. The former Grenadier Guards officer attacks the MoD top brass for failing to stand up to Labour on the resourcing of the armed forces:

"In the middle of the fiercest battles in Iraq, our soldiers stood their ground and fought bravely. Some gave everything to do their duty; they may have lacked resources, but they never lacked courage. The same cannot be said for many of those at the top of the MoD whose responsibility was to make the right decisions in Iraq and not the convenient ones. They failed to provide the Government with hard facts and choices and to confront it with the strategic implications of under-resourcing the Army. Our soldiers were expected to give their lives if necessary, but those at the very top shrank from committing ‘career suicide’ by standing up to politicians and telling them the uncomfortable truth."

Tim Montgomerie