Rumsfeld Rides Again as Old, New Europe Tensions Shake Up NATO

The spirit of Donald Rumsfeld is stalking NATO: From the war in Afghanistan to confronting the Kremlin, the U.S. once again has more support from ``new'' Europe than from ``old.''

Rumsfeld launched a broadside at France and Germany in 2003, when as U.S. defense secretary he dismissed them as problematic ``old Europe'' for resisting the Iraq War and said that ``the center of gravity'' was shifting east, where new allies like Poland had joined in the coalition against Saddam Hussein.

With North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders meeting in Bucharest this week, the pattern is reemerging on two fronts. The first is Afghanistan, where Western European governments are balking at putting troops in harm's way. The second is the future shape of NATO itself, with the same old allies frustrating U.S. goals of taking in countries such as Georgia and Ukraine from the former Soviet heartland.

NATO is evolving into ``a two-tier organization: those that are willing to fight and die for democracy and those who are not,'' says Gary Rice, a retired Canadian colonel who is an Ottawa-based independent military analyst. NATO risks becoming ``just another alliance that's had its day,'' he says Bloomberg