General Scaparrotti speaks to Kiwanis. photo by Jeff Wenzel We were very fortunate to have General Curtis M. Scaparrottii recently retired as Commander of European Command and as Supreme Allied Commander, Europe as our guest speaker last Tuesday morning. 'Scap' as he likes to be called in retirement has had a distinguished career in the Army. He has served as Commandant of the Military Academy at West Point, as Commanding General Fort Bragg, just to name a few of his commands over the years.
General Scaparrotti talked about strategic issues in Europe and the important role that NATO plays in checking expansion of autocratic states. There are 29 countries in NATO and all have to agree when policy is made. When he talked about 'insurance' he said 'assurance' was a 'deterrence' to aggression by non-NATO countries in Europe. He said if NATO did not already exist, we would need to form it. He sees countries influenced internally more by their nationalism and tendencies toward autocratic forms of government.
General Scaparrotti then talked about the 3-Rs; Russia, Radicals and Refugees.
- Russia - Trying to re-establish the strategic buffer with bordering countries that is lost with the breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia's technology is improving and threatens to undermine NATO.
- Radicals - The Taliban were defeated with an 80 nation coalition of countries. ISIS dispersed from Syria with some extremists moving to countries in Africa were converts can be made. Both ISIS and Al-qaeda want a world-wide Islamic Caliphate.
- Refugees - With the wars in Afghanistan and Syria many refugees are moving into Europe looking for safety but also competing with Europeans and former migrants for jobs and housing. However, with the NATO effort there was a 95% decrease in refugees by 2017.
General Scaparrottii went on to mention 'Relevance' and 'Resolve'
- Relevance - A new 'war front' has been opened in cyber space. NATO must keep up with the ever increasing sophistication of nation-state hackers.
- Resolve - We must preserve NATO as we need our 'friends' in the individual country members.
Strategic points: Turkey and Syria.
One point of good news that General Scaparrotti gave us was the increase in Department of Defense budget by Congress that will allow more funding for missile defense and missile technology as we already are challenged by some countries in these two areas.
- Although Turkey is a NATO ally it is trending toward a more autocratic type of government.
- The US needs to withdraw from Syria but on a timeline that will allow the re-establishment of a condition that will maintain stability.
One point of good news that General Scaparrotti gave us was the increase in Department of Defense budget by Congress that will allow more funding for missile defense and missile technology as we already are challenged by some countries in these two areas.