ESPER’S ON A MISSION: U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has arrived in Brussels with a laundry list of polite, but firm, requests from America’s NATO allies. It’s time, he says, for them to start doing more of the heavy lifting in the Middle East, starting with Iraq.

At past NATO ministerials the focus has been on how much NATO members are spending on building up their own militaries, with an eye on how many are meeting the goal of devoting 2% of GDP on defense by 2024.