The Case Against NATO

In 1945, as the Nazi regime collapsed, and the end of World War 2, the two victors on the continent of Europe were the Americans, and the Soviet Union. As the borders were being redrawn, the Soviets managed to set up puppet communist governments in Eastern Europe, from East Germany to Romania. Meanwhile, the United States, which had more friendly relations with Western Europe, began the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe, by investing large amounts of money to rebuild the continent. Although the Eastern European nations wanted too, the Soviet Union suspected foul play, despite their being none, and did not allow the western money to come in, beginning the Post-War tension between the Soviet Union and the United States. This would intensify throughout the late 1940’s, as the Soviet Union backed Communist Proxies in Greece during the Greek Civil War, and threatened Turkey over control over the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits. Soon, the United States had enough, and formed NATO as a defensive pact between Western European nations, such as France, Britain, Italy, and later, West Germany and Turkey. 

NATO served as a great deterrent against the Soviet Union, thanks to NATO Article 5. For those who don’t know NATO Article 5 states that an attack on one nation is an attack on all, so, if a nation got attacked by the Soviets, they would all have to fight against the aggressor, and would begin nuclear war, which would, in result, end the world due to the MAD Doctrine. So, NATO was a very good deterrent against the Soviet Union.

Finally, after the 1980’s US military buildup, several negotiations, and finally, the Revolutions of 1989, the Soviet Union collapsed, as all of its Republics left. Now, there were several new nations, with the biggest being Russia. Now, Russia, despite the Soviet Union collapsing, didn’t think they lost that much, as they were still a pretty powerful country militarily and economically. They thought that, because they were one of the superpowers to come out of this, they, with the United States and China, would help together to build a new world order. They also said that, because the Cold War was over, the US could dissolve NATO, as there was no threat it was going to fight against. However, Washington DC had other plans.

Due to fighting against the Russians for 50 years in the Cold War, the politicians in Washington DC still, despite a friendlier regime in Russia during the 1990’s, did not trust the Russians in building a new world order. Also, soon, as they wanted to build friendly relations with the nations in Eastern Europe, who were worried Russia would , so they decided to let them into NATO. On top of that, Bill Clinton also needed the Polish American vote in the 1996 election, and that would be sure to get that demographic. Despite this, however, several experts, including a former ambassador to Russia, warned that this was a mistake of epic proportions, as Russia would see the expansion of NATO as a potential threat, especially as it moved closer to their borders, and would react against it, possibly militarily, against Eastern Europe, putting Europe, and potentially the world, in danger. 

Despite these warnings, the US government continued their NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, and Russia, predictably, criticized this. However, in 2000, this could have all changed when the newly elected Russian president, Vladimir Putin, asked to join NATO. This would have given the United States a huge advantage, as one of the most powerful nations in the world would be on their side, and the US, Russia, and the rest of NATO could work together on fighting their only major threat at the time, Iran. However, the United States said no. So, NATO continued to expand into Eastern Europe, even after Russia threatened them to stop by invading several countries, like Georgia in 2008, and Ukraine in 2014, and finally, Ukraine in 2022. It was almost like NATO was deliberately trying to make Russia as angry as possible. When Russia invaded Ukraine, although it was indisputably Russia’s fault, NATO didn’t try to stop it from happening, and sort of prolonged it by continuously sending weapons to Ukraine, instead of trying to reach a peace settlement.

On top of that, despite NATO being a defense organization, it has become more and more warmongering over the past few decades. After the fall of the Soviet Union, NATO began doing its first combat operations in Yugoslavia. While the Serbs definitely had it coming, this led to criticism of NATO, as, first, that wasn’t their job, and second, NATO was supposed to be a defensive organization, and, despite the horrible things that the Yugoslav paramilitaries did in Bosnia, they didn’t do anything to the rest of NATO. This happened again in 1998 with the bombing in Yugoslavia, in reaction to the Kosovo War. Through the 2000’s and 2010’s, NATO nations also got involved in conflicts in the Middle East, like in Syria and Libya, despite them not being their business. Sometimes, NATO members are on opposing sides, like the Turkish backed Syrian Interim government fighting against the US backed Kurds in Syria, or the Libyan GNA, which is backed by the Americans and Turks, fighting against the House of Representatives, backed by the French and the Greeks. They also have recently had a policy of making Russia as mad as possible, like when they invited Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO in 2008, despite it being almost guaranteed that Russia would react to this, indirectly causing some of the conflicts there.

On top of that, as I have discussed so many times before, because the United States, which is the most powerful country in the world, would never dare to leave Europe to their fate, the rest of NATO has been slacking in protecting themselves, with a few exceptions including Poland and the Baltic States. Recently, the German military had begun training with literal BROOMSTICKS! This is probably because they are so used to the Americans protecting them, that they think America will carry the team in a potential war with Russia. This was shown clearly with the 2%  defense budget agreement, when in 2014, all member states of NATO agreed that, by 2024, they would all have at least 2% of their government spending on defense. Before the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, only a few nations had met this requirement, and those nations were either the US, Great Britain, or nations that have an actual threat near them, like Russia, Belarus, or Turkey.  However, the Western European nations don’t see any threat, so they don’t care, and slack off.

On top of that, not everyone in NATO has a common goal, or common interests, and even sometimes opposing interests. For example, although NATO has troops in Kosovo to protect against the Serbs, who still claim it as theirs, there are several NATO countries that don’t recognize Kosovo, such as Greece, Spain, Romania, and Slovakia. Also, there are the 3 countries that everyone talks about for being too close to the Russians: Hungary, Slovakia, and Turkey. Ever since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, these 3 countries have not sent aid, and even sometimes politically support the Russians. However, Hungary and Slovakia have a somewhat reasonable reason: Seeing all the mistakes that came from making the Russians angry, they felt that they probably shouldn’t, and try to reach a peace settlement in Ukraine, which was definitely influenced by their previous experiences with the Russians. However, the Turks definitely are having their NATO loyalty questioned, as they are extremely friendly with the Russians, and even buying military equipment from them, such as an air defense system made to shoot down F-16’s. Also, they actively work against NATO members in the Middle East, like in the Syrian Civil War, where the  Turkish backed Syrian Interim Government fights against the Kurds, which are backed by nearly everyone else in NATO, or in Libya, where the Turkish backed GNA fights the French and Greek backed House of Representatives. On top of that, they constantly make threats to another NATO nation, Greece, as part of the larger Greco Turkish Cold War. Although nations are fine to pursue their own interests, if they are in an alliance with conflicting interests, the whole thing will fall apart like a house of cards

But NATO’s biggest problem is that, while all this was happening, because of their constant attempts to make Russia as furious as possible, China had been growing its military and economy rapidly, to the point of rivaling the United States. Recently, the Russian and Chinese have started growing closer together, especially after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the sanctions passed on Russia. Due to this, Russia was closed to the European market, and decided to sell their exports, like oil and NG, to Chinese markets. Meanwhile, the Chinese sent advanced weapons to Russia to fight Ukraine. Over the past 3 years, the alliance between Russia and China have grown to become stronger than ever, posing a massive threat to America, because two of the most powerful nations in the world are in an alliance against them.

However, we just expect Russia to do nothing when NATO expands. If China or Russia were to place misses on the US Border, with say, Canada, it would be immediate war, as the US needs to defend itself. However, Russia can’t defend it’s national interests? That doesn’t mean that the Invasion of Ukraine is justified, but what will you expect them to do, nothing?

So, for several reasons, including the grave tactical error of not trying to build friendly relations with the Russians, which caused the Bear-Dragon alliance, evolving from a defensive organization to the world’s biggest warmonger, and making Europe weaker than ever, NATO should be abolished, for it, since the Cold War, has made mistake after mistake, but never learned their lesson.