The issue of whether our NATO partners are up to the task of joint defense missions might seem a topic far removed from us in Central Texas, but it isn’t — not when one considers the perilous role military personnel from Fort Hood have played in Afghanistan and Iraq during the past decade.

In what are among his final comments on our military affairs during a visit to Brussels last Friday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates pulled no punches, stating that many nations in NATO are freeloaders, declining to put agreed-upon funds into their national defense, failing to join U.S. forces and other allies in key NATO missions, or both.

Gates, who leaves his post at month’s end, said the United States’ European allies in particular are “apparently willing and eager for American taxpayers to assume the growing security burden left by reductions in European defense budgets.” By agreement, each NATO member is to invest in its defense an amount equal to at least 2 percent of its GDP. Of the 28 NATO partners, those actually doing so are France, Great Britain, the United States, Albania and, most astonishingly of all, economically devastated Greece.

We’re glad Gates chose this topic as his valedictory address. As we watch redeployments of military personnel from Central Texas and post memorials for those killed in combat, Americans are justified in wondering about the resolve of supposed allies whose financial commitments and troop numbers sag while we’re left to fulfill difficult and sometimes unpopular missions.

The current Libya mission must leave Gates particularly rankled. As Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann correctly noted at this week’s GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire, Gates expressed reservations about our involvement in Libya at the outset, even as other NATO powers (and some U.S. politicians) shamed us into becoming involved in this faraway civil war.

Now that we’re in, we find fewer than half of the NATO membership involved and even fewer actually conducting strike missions — this, despite the fact all NATO members voted to get involved. Singled out for their lack of actual involvement are Spain, Germany, Poland and the Netherlands.

Gates’ remarks should serve as a warning to our NATO allies. The United States is often called upon to lead in terms of investment and troop strength, even as our nation sinks deeper into financial debt that could lay ruin to our way of life and even our military might. If NATO can’t ensure we won’t bear a growing bulk of the military burden, it may be high time to question the future of NATO — or at least our continued role in it.