If you’ve been marginally aware of how difficult Presidents Bush 43 and Obama have found it to get our NATO allies to assist in Afghanistan over the past half-dozen years or so, then this news would come as little surprise:

For the second time in three years, Britain has found itself with too small a stockpile of spare parts for its combat aircraft. This time it’s the new Typhoon jet fighters.

So, exactly what level of military force projection in Libya has caused Great Britain to start having problems keeping planes in the air?

For the last three months, eight of Britain's Typhoons have been operating over Libya. This has exhausted the supply of spare parts.

Eight planes. Three months.

And the British are probably our most formidable NATO ally. I hate to think of how little the rest of them could contribute should there be some aggression in Europe itself.