While the original goal of NATO was clear - to defend Western Europe from Soviet influence - its post-Soviet goals have long been debated. Members of all participating countries have often noted that the United States spends more on the organization than all other members combined. According to the
Huffington Post in 2017: "... it can’t be argued that NATO has served American interests since 1991. For the last 15 years, the U.S. has been engaged in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries. ... NATO is a military alliance and one of its members, the United States, has been involved in wars for 15 years." However, not all US-led invasions have received automatic support. After Article 5 was invoked for the first and only time due to the
September 11 attacks, the NATO members showed support for an invasion of Afghanistan but not for one of Iraq. While some countries independently aided the US in Iraq (such as the
United Kingdom and the
Netherlands), others like
France and
Germany refused. Furthermore, countries had no obligation in terms of numbers and involvement regarding Afghanistan. As such, any country in the alliance was free to contribute whatever served their interests best. The
Post article refers to the group as "a group of sovereign nations that will respond to American requests as they see fit", as well as having "devolved into bilateral relations between the U.S. and each NATO member".