In April of 1949 the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was formed…..it was suppose to be a defensive move to block the Western expansion of the USSR after they engulfed most of Eastern Europe.
In the beginning a US Senator was opposed to the creation of NATO….
Sen Robert Taft (R-OH)…..made his thoughts known…..
Sen. Robert Taft arguing against the creation of NATO: “The building up of a great army surrounding Russia…means inevitably an armament race, and armament races in the past have led to war…[NATO] will do far more to bring about a third world war than it ever will to maintain the peace.”
Damn a very prophetic thought on the function of NATO…..
Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union more countries…..today there are 30 member states and others waiting for approval…..
So originally it was a defensive move by Europe and the US to counter the growing influence of the USSR.
My question now is NATO still defensive or has it become an offensive weapon?
NATO meanwhile is typically described as a defensive treaty organization of countries that have a mutual assistance pact to come to each other’s aid with military force if any member is attacked.
But NATO is hardly a “defensive organization.”
Indeed, from its founding NATO has been an aggressive alliance designed to hem in the then Soviet Union, and to to threaten it with destruction by US nuclear weapons which were and still are stored in member countries, sometimes actually mounted on missiles and available for rapid loading onto US and NATO bombers parked on air bases all over Europe. That hemming-in process today, following decades of further expansion of NATO following the Soviet Union’s collapse, includes adding members located right up on the Russian border in countries like Poland, Estonia and Latvia (where US rockets and nuclear-capable planes are minutes away from critical Russian targets like army and air bases, as well as major navy ports.
NATO was founded in early April 1949 when the Soviet Union didn’t even have a single nuclear weapon and was not expected by US scientists and security people to get one for another 5-10 years. Yet the organization was also founded at a time that the US, which was working round the clock to industrialize production of its new, initially hand-made atomic bombs, had already assembled and stockpiled over 200 of these city-destroying weapons. That is a pretty awesome arsenal for a country that at that time had no rival in destructive capability.
NATO is Not a Defensive Alliance
Remember Afghanistan?
In case your recent history knowledge is a bit fuzzy…..Afghanistan was a 20 year war….that was a NATO operation…..
Was it defensive?
To my mind it was not defensive….it began as retaliation and just kept spiraling from there into a 20 year war.
Now we have NATO in the middle of this fray in Ukraine….why? Ukraine is bordered by NATO members and the all important Article 5 must be protected…..an attack on one is an attack on all (the old musketeer call…one for all and all for one)
Ukraine will not be the end of the problems brewing…..and NATO will be ass deep in the fray.
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Taft really hit the spot. He should have had a second job as a fortune teller!
Best wishes, Pete.
I agree….but He had to run against Eisenhower for the nomination….and that close to the end of WW2 he did nit stand a chance…..sadly chuq
For context this was interesting….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_sharing#:~:text=NATO,-Weapons%20provided%20for&text=Of%20the%20three%20nuclear%20powers,of%20NATO's%20nuclear%20sharing%20policy.
Apparently the nuclear sharing is in the form of bombs that are deliverable from aircraft (that are in theory vulnerable to being shot down), and not missile systems, nor even tactical nukes from what I can determine. And all of it is under American security control.
I believe NATO in Afghanistan was in response to the first time NATO members invoked Article 5 (the “Musketeer” thing) as a result of America being attacked on 9/11. It wasn’t some arbitrary escapade to join the U.S. in Afghanistan. I am not aware that any nukes of any kind were deployed in Afghanistan for any reason.
NATO involvement in Kosovo was assigned as a humanitarian intervention as a result of Milosevic was into some genocide thing (interesting comparison to Ukraine now) and refugees were heading into neighboring countries in a mass exodus. China and Russia vetoed any UN involvement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia#:~:text=The%20North%20Atlantic%20Treaty%20Organisation,1999%20to%2010%20June%201999.
“In 1991, as the Soviet Union was dissolved, Russian president Boris Yeltsin sent a letter to NATO, suggesting that Russia’s long-term aim was to join NATO.”
Yet…
“Russia engaged in hostile threats or actions against Moldova/Transnistria (1992–2016); Georgia (2004–2012); Estonia (2006–2007); Ukraine (2014–present); Syria (2015-present), and Turkey (2015–2016), among others.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93NATO_relations#:~:text=The%20NATO%20Secretary%20General%2C%20Manfred,aim%20was%20to%20join%20NATO.
Given what NATO initiated in Kosovo, they seem to have real restraint regarding Ukraine even if only for the idea that Putin could be nuts enough to use chemicals or nukes.
It’s all been about how Putin feels in the world and how HE interprets NATO’s roll. NATO was formed because of fear from an aggressive Russia all along.
Sen Taft had it right…..and his prediction has come true….and continues to be so…..chuq
When NATO started expanding beyond the originals then it had eyes on offense and not just as a stop gap for the USSR chuq
NATO or not .. we will all,sooner or later, be ass deep in the fray whether we want to be or not.
The way the Congress is talking I fear you may be right….another war for us to pay for….oh goody chuq
We are already paying for it. Those arms shipments to Ukraine are not cheap. Plus, if we get caught up in THIS war, we will be paying for the war production that we will have to be doing on an emergency basis … and if Russia uses nukes, we will have to pay the price that comes with a world wide nuclear conflagration.
John here is a thought on all those weapons….https://news.antiwar.com/2022/03/22/pentagon-scrambles-to-restock-weapons-sent-to-ukraine-as-arm-makers-look-to-cash-in/
chuq
I will have to disagree with you for once. NATO arose from the fears of USSR/Russia wanting to expand it sphere of influence. Russia historically care shit for its neighbors. It wants to control them because of the mistaken belief that subjugated states protect Russia from the outside world. This knowledge is why so many former Eastern Bloc countries in Europe rushed too join NATO. Not to attack Russia, but to have a collective security against Russia.
I agree why NATO began…..in 1949……chuq
Thanx so very much chuq