Posted on 10/06/2008 11:24:09 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Nato's top military commander has demanded the authority to draw up detailed military plans to defend former Soviet bloc members for the first time since the alliance expanded eastward.
Russia's offensive in Georgia in August exposed the dangers of the Western alliance's lack of contingency plans against an invasion on its eastern flanks.
Political leaders from the Baltics and Eastern Europe have subsequently demanded that Nato fulfil the requirements implied by its "Chapter 5" commitment to defend the territorial integrity of all its members.
General James Craddock, Nato's Supreme Commander, has asked for the political authority to draw up contingency defence plans at a Nato meeting in Budapest later this week.
France and Germany have signalled opposition to the move but Gen Craddock has the strong backing of American and Britain.
But even US officials acknowledge there is a risk that the move will cause a rift within Nato. "This becomes politicised very quickly," a Pentagon official said.
Gen Craddock has already proposed that Estonia, the Baltic state that has a 20 per cent Russian speaking minority, should be the first country to undergo a formal military risk assessment.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The article says — “Political leaders from the Baltics and Eastern Europe have subsequently demanded that Nato fulfil the requirements implied by its “Chapter 5” commitment to defend the territorial integrity of all its members.”
Well.., “duh” ... LOL...
If they don’t have that — then NATO is a military paper tiger and not even worth the paper that the treaties are printed on.
NATO doesn’t have a functioning army to speak of outside of Britain and maybe a few Baltic states. In the other countries, the armies are seen as social welfare programs and because of the emphasis on the troop’s condition, very little money is spent on hardware or on training with the hardware that they have.
Agreed. Perhaps we in Britain should redeploy our MBT force from Germany to the Ukraine or Poland.
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