Posted on 03/18/2014 9:42:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
LONDON - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden began a reassurance tour of east European allies Tuesday, promising that the current diplomatic crisis over Russia would leave NATO “stronger and more unified than ever.”
But some experts say the showdown over Ukraine has exposed the organization as toothless in the face of Vladimir Putin’s triumphant annexation of Crimea.
While Biden was in Warsaw promising to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with Poland, Putin was making a defiant, barnstorming speech at the Kremlin that placed new pressure on the United States to act.
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, despite many years of speculation that it is poised to join, and therefore it is not automatically protected under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty – the clause which regards any attack on one member state as an attack on all.
“That’s going to make it very difficult for NATO to do anything of significance,” said Andrew C. Kuchins, a senior fellow and director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “It’s more likely that any action will be taken by a coalition of the willing.”
Does that mean NATO is essentially toothless? “Yes, I think it does,” said Kuchins.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
“It starts with...”We have to go and intervene”, and then becomes. “Please make it stop”.
Right.
We always know when it starts, but never when it will stop.
At the beginning of WWI, British and French people believed that “it will be over for Christmas” ... and it lasted four years ...
I have a fix for that.
The government should tell the people that the war could last from 5-10 years and they will be taxed to pay for it.
It should stop the speculation in the media and settle everything right down like a cold shower.
But having said that, I forgot to mention that I lived through the entire so called cold war from start to finish.
It never ended as far as I am concerned. I became hardened to it. I don’t really look forward to playing that game again and would frankly speaking, push the red button if it were left to me.
It would make the war a lot shorter..
NATO -> fix it immediately or shut it down. Major western countries are doing what France and UK did in 38/39.
Out of political leadership. Money is not a big issue here.
The question to be asked is does NATO have any business in the Ukraine?
I think not. If Ukraine becomes part of the EU, that would be different.
They can take Estonia (and they will if “western” leaders go on with their impotence) within 24h, NATO will not even release a press statement before it's all over and then goes “but we shouldn't start WW3 over that” crowd fueled up by FSB agents. There are no plans to defend Baltic states in case of invasion, not even plans. Fix it immediately or shut it down.
Jim, the sad but honest response is: “What’s a NATO?”
How high is up?
One Saudi on the hijack crew was stopped and taken into custody upon his entry into the US. He was, none the less, a full participant in the Saudi conspiracy.
I quite agree.
I'd go with the shut it down option, the US needs to learn to let European nations make their own decisions, and butt out.
And the Germans shutting down their nuke plants due to their (watermelon) Greens sure hasn’t helped things.
My original comment was a wiseacre crack about the proliferance of Saudis involved and the inability of observers to use Occam's Razor. That's why I referenced the 20th.
Saudi attempting to buy an American politician, unsuccessful with Rudy (kudos), often successful with others including RINOs.
Good points. I had forgotten about the former and didn’t know about the latter.
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