You Say NATO? Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

Steven Metz says the great anti-Soviet coalition might be kaput, at least if the Libya war is judged a failure. It seems that President Obama put too much faith in NATO, and NATO has too many expectations of the U.S.:

[F]or the third time since the end of the cold war, NATO has accepted a major mission and then demonstrated that it does not have the unity of purpose or the military capability to perform it. At least, not without the United States dominating. Meanwhile, the United States has not fully grappled with the idea that NATO may have outlived its usefulness: Its costs may outweigh the contribution it makes to American security, and the notion that the U.S. needs to remain heavily involved in European security seems less and less evident.