NATO–What Is It Really Good For?
Unless you are living under a rock or are so self-absorbed slapping people as a new pastime, you are watching the atrocity in Ukraine unfold with as much anger and disgust as I am. Ready to throw your ditty bag in the back of a carrier and go help defend a sovereign nation from a big, invading bully? I feel the same and I’ve been bedridden with medical issues for months. (Took quite a beating but turning a corner now I believe).
If you are anything like me perhaps you have scrambled to reacquaint yourself with the responsibilities of NATO and who is a member. Ukraine wanted to be a member but faced strong opposition from Russia which is also not a member. Huh? Feeling a little confused? Me too. NATO was specifically organized to keep the then-Soviet Union from expanding past the shady land grab known as the Warsaw Pact. There’s safety in numbers so everyone thought. And there are all sorts of agreements that Russia breaks with impunity, like launching an unprovoked attack upon a sovereign nation and then targeting civilians, including children. NATO isn’t doing anything since they have not yet allowed Ukraine to join.
Even with all these atrocities being committed for all the world to see, they would not even impose a no-fly zone for fear of stirring the hornet’s nest. I guess they hope Putin will be satisfied with grabbing a port and fuel supply line. This is much like the same reasoning used by Chamberlain when trying to appease Hitler. Didn’t work then, won’t work now. It is now up to individual countries to help out how they will.
So, it begs the question, in this day and age what is NATO good for? Ukraine has become the mirror reflecting the many weaknesses of global alliances and how they are conducted. Ukraine also acts as a beacon to other nations as to what can be accomplished if you remain steadfast and hold the line. Not long ago the new sheriff in town with the titanium balls, Ukraine’s President Zelensky addressed the US Congress throwing in this hint of things to come, speaking of “new institutions, new alliances” and calling for “a union of responsible countries that have the strength and consciousness to stop conflicts immediately.”
Will a new generation become this century’s Greatest Generation? Will justice and freedom prevail or will we all go poof! in a giant mushroom cloud? All eyes are on Ukraine.
I wish I could find a rock to live under these days, I haven’t been having those nuclear holocaust dreams for many decades, but they’re baaaack. MADD has kept us alive despite the laughs I used to hear, but it’s based on a universal human desire to survive and I think some things may have changed. Has there ever been such madness afoot? Perhaps the Internet has triggered that insanity that’s been lurking all along. But that’s the thing destruction may be assured with or without some actual act to trigger it. But about NATO, I’m quite sure Europe would have been at war for the last 75 years without it. At least it gave me a chance to life a long – ish life but as Jonathan Winters used to say “when the whistle blows, everybody goes” Is our destruction assured if we try to stop a satanic madman conquer the world? Am I talking about Putin or Trump? I report, you decide, but NATO has severe limits and that is because of MADD which was a bargain with the Devil. Those bargains have a time limit.
Every word…
I think you’re confused about who’s conflict this is unless you are living in either Ukraine or Russia.
There is a nation suffering an unprovoked attack rife with treaty violations not to mention humanitarian atrocities. We are not each country an island unto ourselves but rather a global neighborhood. Should we ignore the suffering of Ukrainians because we don’t live there? Would you ignore the murders of your next door neighbors ir the child down the street. Isolationism is a lame argument.
Sorry, those days are over. Nuclear war, like pandemics, isn’t limited by national borders. “It ain’t my fight” isn’t really defensible any more and the flying saucers won’t arrive to take you to the mother ship.
Couldn’t agree more.
I’m not sure I know what you mean. This is a Russian-instigated conflict, and it was instigated for no valid reason except what Hitler would call ‘lebensraum.’
Sounds like an argument for isolationism. Elsewhere I’ve heard people ask why the US needs to be the world’s cop and it’s not an argument worth getting into. I’m not the idiot whisperer, after all.