Posted on 03/05/2022 4:33:20 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
When the Bush Administration announced in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia would be eligible for NATO membership, I knew it was a terrible idea. Nearly two decades after the end of both the Warsaw Pact and the Cold War, expanding NATO made no sense. NATO itself made no sense.
Explaining my “no” vote on a bill to endorse the expansion, I said at the time: NATO is an organization whose purpose ended with the end of its Warsaw Pact adversary… This current round of NATO expansion is a political reward to governments in Georgia and Ukraine that came to power as a result of US-supported revolutions, the so-called Orange Revolution and Rose Revolution.
Providing US military guarantees to Ukraine and Georgia can only further strain our military. This NATO expansion may well involve the US military in conflicts unrelated to our national interest…
Unfortunately, as we have seen this past week, my fears have come true. One does not need to approve of Russia’s military actions to analyze its stated motivation: NATO membership for Ukraine was a red line it was not willing to see crossed. As we find ourselves at risk of a terrible escalation, we should remind ourselves that it didn’t have to happen this way. There was no advantage to the United States to expand and threaten to expand NATO to Russia’s doorstep. There is no way to argue that we are any safer for it.
NATO itself was a huge mistake.
When in 1949 the US Senate initially voted on the NATO treaty, Sen. Roberg Taft – known as “Mr. Republican” – gave an excellent speech on why he voted against creating NATO.
Explaining his “no” vote, Taft said:
… the treaty is a part of a much larger program by which we arm all these nations against Russia… A joint military program has already been made… It thus becomes an offensive and defensive military alliance against Russia. I believe our foreign policy should be aimed primarily at security and peace, and I believe such an alliance is more likely to produce war than peace.
Taft continued:
If we undertake to arm all the nations around Russia…and Russia sees itself ringed about gradually by so-called defensive arms from Norway and Denmark to Turkey and Greece, it may form a different opinion. It may decide that the arming of western Europe, regardless of its present purpose, looks to an attack upon Russia. Its view may be unreasonable, and I think it is. But from the Russian standpoint it may not seem unreasonable. They may well decide that if war is the certain result, that war might better occur now rather than after the arming of Europe is completed…
How right he was.
NATO went off the rails long before 2008, however. The North Atlantic Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949 and by the start of the Korean War just over a year later, NATO was very much involved in the military operation of the war in Asia, not Europe!
NATO's purpose was stated to "guarantee the safety and freedom of its members by political and military means." It is a job not well done!
I believe as strongly today as I did back in my 2008 House Floor speech that, “NATO should be disbanded, not expanded.” In the meantime, expansion should be off the table. The risks do not outweigh the benefits!
Ron Paul continues to prove that is a wack job.
Nobody’s fault but Putin.
More of this coming.
https://twitter.com/MarQs__/status/1499648943520727042?t=l6bGj6ftL7ZbYt6pWHXMng&s=19
He’s absolutely right on this issue.
At the end of WWII, we had liberated France and Italy and Belgium, and we returned those countries to their people.
Russia liberated Poland and Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and ruled over them.
We don’t ever need to apologize for starting NATO.
The stated reason for creating NATO ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union
The un-stated reason reason for continuing NATO (keeping Germany and Western EU on the US MIC plantation) is stronger than ever.
I agree with you. The questions now are: how should it proceed forward, which countries should be included, etc...
I happen to agree with Ron Paul on this matter
An understanding Russian history and the Russian way of thinking about their sovereignty should have told these people that expanding NATO in this manner which going to be seen as military aggression by the Russians.
But, progressives being what they are, which is egocentric to say the least, assume that everyone with any sense thinks exactly the way they do and that’s how they base their predictions on how others will respond. Thus their endless failures and quagmires in foreign policy. Plus they always lose the shirt off their back when negotiating with anyone from the East.
Didn’t know he was still alive.
The expansion of nato as a payoff to us puppet governments is creating hostility in the region due to our constant meddling 🤪
The globalist sentiment is prevailing. Soros took over America, Canada and Ukraine. The EU is all in. So sure, why not? Let’s push nuclear Russia into a corner. Let’s drop the big one and see what happens.
Any reason to have NATO ended with the fall of the Soviet Union. It exists now to steal money from tax payers and destroy other countries that we mildly dislike. Russia was right to see it as a threat.
There is nothing more permanent than a temporary government program.
Imagine a world where the Russians destroy the western economy but leave Washington DC and Davos to run the rubble.
“At the end of WWII, we had liberated France and Italy and Belgium, and we returned those countries to their people.
Russia liberated Poland and Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and ruled over them. We don’t ever need to apologize for starting NATO.”
I agree.
Actually Nato is Europes Army - they just will never say it.
Mmm hmm. This guy previously said that Putin wasn’t going invade Ukraine and the suggestion that the military buildup by Russia on their border was an invasion force was just propaganda.
I agree 100%. Disband NATO. The State Department uses it as their police force, and bribes or threatens other countries to go along.
The US pays for forever wars in foreign lands. “Beware foreign entanglements,” said a pretty great American.
Ratheon, Lockheed Martin, ATK get wildly rich, and bribe congress to keep the cash coming.
End NATO.
No more “Team America, World Police!”
“Didn’t know he was still alive.”
Well libertarians wear holy underware and eat organic, why wouldn’t he enjoy a bit of longevity?
🤸♀️🤸♂️🤸♀️🤸♂️🤸♀️🤸♂️
Yes, he is absolutely right
Our family is about 1.5 steps away from heading to our bol and hunkering down there with a substantial chance of surviving anything
Unfortunately most people don’t have options like that and it would be shame if it takes a massive amount of heat and light to get the war mongers to agree he was right all along
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