Its an election year and as usual most GOP candidates have attacked the UN in one fashion or another….they have accused of everything from being ineffective to being the leader of a new world order…..but this year a new attack has been leveled at another of the many international organizations that we are members of….NATO….the North Atlantic Treaty Organization…..
NATO’s essential purpose is to safeguard the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.
POLITICAL – NATO promotes democratic values and encourages consultation and cooperation on defence and security issues to build trust and, in the long run, prevent conflict.
MILITARY – NATO is committed to the peaceful resolution of disputes. If diplomatic efforts fail, it has the military capacity needed to undertake crisis-management operations. These are carried out under Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – NATO’s founding treaty – or under a UN mandate, alone or in cooperation with other countries and international organizations.
But it appear that at least one GOP candidate, Donald Trump, says that the US should bow out of NATO……a fringe stand at best….but could this candidate be right?
NATO will celebrate its sixty-seventh anniversary in April. Instead of being an occasion for the usual expression of mind-numbing clichés about the alliance’s enduring importance both to U.S. security and world peace, it should become an opportunity for a long overdue assessment of whether the NATO commitment truly serves America’s best interests in the twenty-first century. There is mounting evidence that it does not.
Source: Is it Time for America to Quit NATO? | The National Interest Blog
NATO is being used as a cover for many military interventions and the way that they seem to multiply exponentially maybe it is time to bow out of NATO….the whole idea of a NATO-like organization has become obsolete…..
Unlike many libertarians, I love presidential election season, because that’s when generally ignored foreign policy issues are discussed beyond the small circle of Washington wonks. And that’s why I’m having such fun with Donald Trump – much to the annoyance of some of my readers, both libertarians and liberals alike: because he’s provoking a much-needed […]
Source: NATO: Worse Than ‘Obsolete’ – Antiwar.com Original by — Antiwar.com
I am in the corner of those that say we need to eliminate our membership in NATO….in my opinion, it is too easy for us to go to war at the drop of a hat…..we enter into conflict without any debate or oversight…that smacks of empire….
Yes I said EMPIRE!
(radicalcartography.net)
What would you call this deployment?
I’d call it the end result of a severe, long-standing, paranoid delusional state.
Works for me.
gigoid, the dubious
It is now nothing more than an extension of a “realist” view….and I do not mean that from a simple explanation….the instrument used to carry forth the idea of globalization….by arms if necessary. chuq
As I read the had of your article I became annoyed!
Annoyed because of the isonalistic intentions behind this idea.
The US is a bad teamplayer, still the want other nations to play on the team. However the US tends to be paternalistic towards the other teammembers.
America placed itself on the forefront for Nato because of the Cold War situation after WWII. It endorsed it, placed nuclear weaponary in memberstates, also in the Netherlands.
Western Europe was very aware of the fact that when something went wrong between the US and the USSR we would be at the recieving end whatever the USSR would throw at us.
The US in its entire history has had a love-hate relation with that what layed beyond its borders.
It has and still is a worldpower with isonalistic tendency.
That in mind and the tendency to take action and than think has some strange and even dangerous concequences.
If you place yourself in a position that involves a protective, even paternalistic role don’t be surprised that memeber nations feel overwhelmed by the US.
After 9/11 and the so called War on Terror by president Bush, which costs are astronomous.
In the security council of the UN, I still see the speech on tv as Powell explained the by the US percieved chemical dangers lurking in Iraq. Because of American resentment against the UN the investigations by independent investigators were pushed aside, against many advice of memebersates went ahead, went to war. A war that official ended, but unofficial still goes on.
As all wars on …… the US started it leaves a greater mess as the reason why it started.
If a country places itself above international laws, agreements, treaties, is not open for a different approach don’t blame because of costs.
Blame the ignorance, the American Exceptionalistic views and opinions that brought the US in this financial mess.
Needs the NATO a revision, changes to adept at present day problems?
It maybe be wise to do that.
But please don’t behave like an elephant in a porcelain cabinet.
Ignorance and bias is another dangerous thing:
Americans don’t know, or show great ignorance about American actions in the world. There are ofcourse positive one but the negatives ones are ignored.
The following for instance was what got the nickname “The Hague Invasion Act” signed by President Bush
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvzF09790Ls&w=420&h=315%5D
It is true…Americans only get a watered down worldview….other countries have become addicted to US cash…..I am talking about governments not people….NATO is used a weapon of influence in the dealings of other countries…time for that to change…..chuq
NATO ceased being relevant the day the Soviet Union died. It was essentially the USA Official Fanclub anyway. You join. You pay your dues. And maybe you get an autographed postcard in the mail.
One could easily argue that Putin is a bit of a retro-flashback to those days. However, the US Empire has changed drastically. It no longer gives a fuck what its enemies, or fans, think of it. No more of this “Let’s pretend we listening” bullshit. It does what it wants, when it wants, how it wants. Don’t like it? He’s a drone up your ass!
Your first line says it all…well said…..