Where in the hell do you get the demise of NATO out of NOT getting involved in the Balkans?
That place is a freakin nightmare and if we (the US) wouldn’t have stepped in everyone would have wrung there hands and did nothing and it would have burned out.
There were no major powers involved there!
The only place allied to the region was Russia and at that time they couldn’t do much.
So because we jumped our a$$ in then to something that was none of our business we have a freakin Muslim mess that will never stop until it has taken over Europe. How many will die in that?
I say pick your fights and don’t pick the ones that can never be won!
You might want to look at the relations between Germany and Croatia.
Had the US not stepped up to the plate, NATO would have in essence died on the spot, and there were in fact some in Europe and especially in Russia who were hoping for just that. Within Europe some see NATO as an organization that is not European but controls their security. On the streets the average European sees NATO post Cold War as superfluous. There have been numerous attempts at building pan-European security organizations “outside” of NATO control. France especially within Europe sees their influence being based on security concerns and NATO stands in direct competition to this. There is a reason why when tension rose between the Germans and US in 2002/3, the French immediately suggested that they can place Europe under protection of the French nuclear umbrella, something they seem to float every time there is tension. Had we not acted, this would have precipitated a European response outside of NATO eventually, but before that would have happened, NATO would have died. It would have been a breech in confidence we can nearly expect from half of them on a continuous basis, but we can’t allow for our selves if we want to preserve an international security system like NATO. Yes, it would have ripped NATO to pieces.
Red6b has a point, NATO had to reinvent itself or die, but stupidly it has enabled terrorists.