This had been expected for some time, but the timing of the withdrawal announcement by Norway comes as an unintended rebuke to Secretary Gates’ hectoring of European allies:

Meanwhile, Norway’s government says it will scale down its fighter jet contribution in Libya from six to four planes and withdraw completely from the NATO-led operation by August 1.

Defense Minister Grete Faremo said she expected understanding from NATO allies because Norway had a small air force and cannot “maintain a large fighter jet contribution during a long time.”

On one level, this confirms what Gates was saying about the lack of military capacity, but it also points to the absurdity of turning the Libyan war into a NATO mission when even some of its most willing members cannot sustain a prolonged military campaign on the other side of the Mediterranean. In fairness to the Norwegians, they have been more heavily involved in the Libyan war than all but a few members of NATO and they have more than done their share, but it seems unlikely that there are any governments that are going to fill the gap that Norway will be leaving.

The “hand-off” to NATO in Libya was always a way to maintain prolonged U.S. involvement in the Libyan war by another name, which allowed the administration to pretend that the U.S. role did not amount to participation in ongoing hostilities. This has put significant additional military and political strains on the alliance at a time when there is already stiff resistance to increased military spending in Europe. By dragging NATO into a war that had nothing to do with members of the alliance or their security, the U.S. and Britain especially are overburdening the alliance with demands that both governments know the other allies cannot meet, and what is worse they are doing it for the sake of a military campaign that doesn’t even serve the purpose of the alliance. For the foreseeable future, calls for increased military spending are going to be linked in the eyes of European governments with ill-conceived “out of area” operations. European governments are going to continue to be at odds over their respective roles in Libya, and those divisions are likely to become even deeper if the Libyan mission drags on or ends badly. All of this makes it that much less likely that hitherto skeptical governments will support efforts to improve European defense cooperation.

P.S. In a more pointed rejection of Gates’ criticisms, the Dutch still refuse to participate in the bombing campaign.