Posted on 10/16/2022 9:34:36 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
In Washington, D.C., the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the equivalent of a foreign policy holy sacrament. To listen to many policymakers and foreign policy commentators, you would think NATO is as essential to America as our Constitution, apple pie, or baseball.
Questioning its continued utility in the post-Cold War era — or its further expansion — elicits accusations of being everything from un-American to a Putin stooge. This has made it almost impossible to have a substantive discussion about a military alliance designed to deter the threat of the Soviet Union — a country that hasn’t existed for more than 30 years.
Look no further than the fact that only one senator, Josh Hawley, voted against the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO in June. Hawley rightly questioned whether it was wise to extend America’s security umbrella to two wealthy European welfare states that have been safe and secure as neutral nations for more than 70 years, especially considering other pressing challenges at home and abroad. The bipartisan vitriol hurled at Hawley for his reasonable stance showed that Washington is far from ready to discuss the future of the NATO alliance like adults.
This wasn’t always the case. The United States was a nation founded on a suspicion of permanent alliances, especially with Europe. George Washington in his farewell address advised “to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world…” and specifically against “interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe.” This approach to alliances guided American foreign policy for most of our history and kept us out of the chaos of 19th-century Europe.
There is good reason for our leaders to revisit the wise words of our first president. Just last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded an accelerated accession to NATO, claiming that Ukraine is already a de facto member of the alliance. Due to the collective defense obligations of NATO members spelled out in Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, this could mean committing America’s sons and daughters to fight in an ongoing war with a nuclear-armed Russia.
In a diplomatic cable dispatched in 2008, then-U.S. ambassador and current CIA Director William Burns wrote, “NATO enlargement, particularly to Ukraine, remains an ‘emotional and neuralgic’ issue for Russia.” For the United States, however, there are simply no vital American interests at stake that warrant a nuclear showdown with Moscow.
Allowing Ukraine to join NATO — and thereby committing America’s full military arsenal to the negligible matter of who governs the Donbas — would significantly raise the possibility of nuclear devastation. It is therefore essential that American policymakers firmly reject Ukraine’s demands to join NATO while slamming shut the “open door” policy offered at the 2008 Bucharest Summit.
Even absent the current conflict, NATO membership for Ukraine would be costly to Americans. According to a report published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies prior to the launch of the current Russian invasion, the upfront costs would be up to $27 billion with annual costs totaling up to $11 billion for American taxpayers if Ukraine joins NATO. The United States military would also be required to permanently deploy tens of thousands more troops to Europe, which would further strain a military that is already over-tasked around the world and facing significant challenges with recruiting.
A further expansion of NATO and increased deployment of U.S. troops to Europe would also encourage more European free-riding. Already, rich European states that should have more of a stake in what happens in Eastern Europe are contributing significantly less than the United States to the defense of Ukraine.
Worse, promised defense spending increases by countries such as Germany may not materialize. And why would they? The United States has doubled down in Europe, spending tens of billions of dollars and deploying more troops to Eastern Europe to support Ukraine and reassure nervous allies. None of this has been fixed to greater defense spending by our NATO allies. The Europeans have no incentive to stop treating Uncle Sam like Uncle Sucker.
For these reasons, it should be a no-brainer for America’s leaders to permanently slam the door on the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO. But for many, blind loyalty to NATO trumps common sense.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., told Politico he supports Ukraine’s rapid accession to NATO, despite the ongoing war. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while not specifically endorsing NATO membership for Ukraine, did say she supports a “security guarantee” for the country, which could be granted through NATO. Even the Biden administration, while not endorsing rapid accession to NATO, did keep the door open for their membership at a later date.
American leaders should put the interests of the American people first — and certainly before those of an alliance that long ago outlived its original purpose. Putting Ukraine under America’s security umbrella through NATO would lead to disastrous results. Beyond the risk of a nuclear conflict, spending tens of billions of dollars to expand NATO to Ukraine or other European countries is foolish during a time of record inflation, a $30 trillion national debt, and the rising threat of China in Asia.
The American people are owed a much more serious evaluation of NATO and its continued utility than the emotional nostalgia that dominates the discourse in policymaking circles.
When did the Soviet Union request to join NATO?
March 1954
The document below is a translation of V. M. Molotov’s proposal to the Soviet Presidium in March 1954 that the USSR should issue a diplomatic note to the Western powers stating its willingness to consider joining NATO.
https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/molotovs-proposal-the-ussr-join-nato-march-1954
“THIS TREATY IS NOT A PACT FOR WAR, BUT A PLEDGE FOR PEACE AND PROGRESS.”
Lester B. Pearson,
Speaking at the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty Washington, D.C., 4 April 1949
Canada, a founding member of NATO, was one of the first countries to propose the idea of a transatlantic defensive alliance. Working closely with their American and European colleagues, Canadian negotiators helped write the 14 articles of the North Atlantic Treaty.
Mulroney chose to cancel an increase in forces envisaged for West Germany and in fact decided to withdraw the last Canadian land forces from Europe. On 10 July 1993, the last Canadian Armed Forces personnel left Europe.
As long as ukraine is in conflict with russia they will not be in nato.
If he’s not he will be.
Gaslighting.
Russia and Ukraine have been friends since the end of the Cold War. They signed multiple treaties to that effect.
All Putin had to do was not be an asshole and not invade his brother.
This is how amicable relations were between Russia and Ukraine, before Putin donned his Hitler hat and insisted on some Lebensraum.
https://twitter.com/JusticeNafo/status/1581197557853659141
I agree. But as long as ukraine and russia are in conflict(thanks to putin) ukraine will not be allowed in nato. They have to be at peace and the crimea question resolved.
Russia has already been told - by Zelenskyy no less, in March and April - that they’d already shelved their NATO application. NATO already told Russia in December that Ukraine didn’t meet NATO standards (because of deteriorated relations with Russia). They hadn’t issued Ukraine a roadmap even.
Those assurances weren’t good enough. Putin responded by invading Ukraine, razing Mariupol... and then Bucha happened.
Putin doesn’t want Ukraine to apply, but he also wants NATO to withdraw to a 1997 map and mothball the accession of Bosnia.
Ukraine put everything Russia wanted from it on the table including Denazification, removal of the Poroshenko rules on language, abandoning NATO membership.
All Ukraine demanded in return was security guarantees from Russia and its NATO allies - like it had in the original Budapest Memorandum.
Rusdia said thst was unacceptable.
Tell me more about turkey, grand dad
Correction: several accords written by Russia and signed by Khazakstan, Ukraine and Belarus (and witnessed and cosigned by the USA, UK) were to ensure that NO SIGNATORY would invade the ex Soviet states giving nukes to Russia.
The nukes weren’t Russian property. They were the property of the Soviet Union, stationed inside several Soviet republics.
Soviet Union assets left inside the republics at the end of the Cold War automatically became the property of the independent republics.
Who lacked the ability to deploy or maintain those nukes.
If Ukraine had wanted to it could’ve sold those nukes to China, North Korea, the UK or the USA. Khazakstan decided to keep it simple and just gave them to Russia, free of charge. It didn’t have to.
Ukraine’s solution was to demand a quid pro quo before handing its nukes to Russia.
Russia has been violating that quid pro quo on a daily basis since at least 2006.
Get out of Ukraine!
It’s not our war, in any way, shape or form.
Both Putin and Zelensky are corrupt, murderous dictators.
Get out of Ukraine!
The UK just did a u-turn on a two year cap on energy prices.
The cap now will end this coming April.
Somehow I don’t think the Ukraine scam will be going for too much longer.
PLEASE don't give the dementia-addled dimwit in the District of Corruption any ideas.
The point of the Budapest Memorandum was to provide security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) based on their relinquishment of the nuclear arsenals that they had inherited when the Soviet Union fell.
Ukraine, in return for giving up its nuclear arsenal, had sought legally binding guarantees that the US and UK would intervene should Ukraine’s sovereignty be breached. The US was not willing to go that far, so Ukraine had to accept the weaker but nevertheless significant binding security assurances that Russia would respect its independence and sovereignty and existing borders. China and France subsequently extended similar assurances to Ukraine, but did not sign the Budapest Memorandum.
US and other diplomats have stated that although the terms of the securituy assurances were deliberately vague, it was understood that if there was a violation, there would be a response by the US and the UK that would include lethal military assistance. And so, when Russia invaded Ukraine proper, the US was bound to come to Ukaine's aid.
Notably, with a substantial industrial base and a cadre of nuclear scientists and technicians, Ukraine had the technical skills to keep, service, and potentially use its nuclear arsenal. I am sure there are many Ukrainians who regret that they did not keep their nukes.
“Ukraine DID have a nuclear capability at the end of the Cold War in the form of a substantial stockpile of formerly Soviet nuclear weapons on their territory. With substantial nuclear technical skills and resources, Ukraine could have kept those nuclear weapons as the basis for becoming a new nuclear power, but they instead relinquished them all, in part in return for a promise of US and NATO protection against Russia.”
Sure did... And it would have deterred this from happening. Then Clinton and Obama screwed them.
Yet the prime nongoodniks are Putin and his circle. By so callously attacking Ukraine in disregard of Russia’s formal, signed security assurances, they have made it nearly impossible to trust any similar assurrances in the future. This makes negotiations to settle the conflict almost pointless because Putin simply cannot be trusted. This makes Russia’s defeat and Putin’s death or removal from power a vurtual necessity for resolving the Ukraine conflict.
Uh-huh.
Keep saying that to yourself.
Your side of this argument/debate contains ALL of the Marxists/Commies/Socialists.
They don’t give a darn about your welfare or mine.
They will do anything to maintain they’re power and control and they are staring their loss of control in the face with the upcoming 2022 elections.
Think again!
This has been a straw man since the beginning.
No one is putting nukes into Ukraine. No one is putting Ukraine into NATO—at least not for a long time.
This argument has been the red herring that Putin whines about as he tries to grab Ukrainian gas fields.
They will do anything to maintain they’re power and control and they are staring their loss of control in the face with the upcoming 2022 elections.
Think again!
Ok so when the election happens Repubs when and Biden doesnt nuke will YOU “think again”?
Well NATO and it’s Allies are providing Ukraine with ‘unprecedented’ levels of support. But by law they are not required to do anything since Ukraine is not a Nato member.
The only reason Ukraine had Nuclear Weapons was because the newly-founded Ukraine ended up with the’ Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons’ in their territory after the Soviet Union collapsed......... .the agreement was between U.S.,U.K. and yes even Russia would guarantee Ukraine staying secure. But it was never Nato protection...... However, that was not a treaty -( it was no different than the Iran ‘Agreement”)....So, the next presidents can just no longer honor it. That’s exactly what Trump did with the Iran nuclear deal.
Zelensky and his yo yo’s thought and still think they can Force a full on Nato war with Russia. HE’s wrong and he’s very dangerous!
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