Posted on 01/18/2017 10:47:28 AM PST by VitacoreVision
“Neither can the U.S. be expected to sustain an expensive role in an alliance [the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO] whose chief role is to diminish European fear of a resurgent Germany.”
These may be the sentiments, though not the words of President-elect Donald Trump, who has called NATO “obsolete.” The words are those of the late Jeanne Kirkpatrick, who served as ambassador to the United Nations for President Ronald Reagan. In an article she wrote for the National Interest in the fall of 1990, it would appear that Kirkpatrick would have agreed with Trump’s bold assertion: “I said a long time ago — that NATO had problems. Number one it was obsolete, because it was, you know, designed many, many years ago.”
In her National Interest article, Kirkpatrck stated almost the same thing: “Many of the international military obligations that we assumed were once important are now outdated,” she observed, adding that it was “time to give up the dubious benefits of superpower status and become again an usually successful, open American republic.”
NATO was formed in a different era, in the aftermath of World War I, as the Stalin-led Soviet Union brought many countries in eastern Europe behind the tyranny of the “Iron Curtain” — nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. The Russian war machine appeared to many in the West poised to sweep across western Europe as well, taking over the western part of Germany, France, and perhaps even Great Britain.
Certainly, that was the stated reason given that this extraordinary NATO alliance was necessary: that an attack upon one of its members was an attack upon all of its members, thus telling Stalin that he would face the military might of the United States should he attempt to expand the Soviet Empire westward.
It is vitally important to understand, however, that NATO also had a deeper purpose, which was to end forever America’s traditional non-interventionist foreign policy and tie us to Europe. And as long as the Russian Bear was a military threat, Europeans could count on the United States being heavily involved in Europe’s affairs — and wars.
After World War I, most Americans wanted nothing more to do with Europe, or international “obligations.” In 1920, they went to the polls and elected by a nearly two-to-one margin a candidate who vowed that the United States would not join the League of Nations, as was desired by the global elites of the day. Because of this rejection, the elites formed various internationalist-supporting organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and went to work changing the anti-war psyche of the American public. It took the threat of Adolf Hitler, imperial Japan, and finally, the Cold War against Soviet communism to move Americans from their traditional non-interventionist foreign policy to one that embraced a new global “mission,” of which NATO was an integral part.
But as Kirkpatrick explained in 1990, “There is no mystical American ‘mission,’ or purpose to be ‘found’ independently of the U.S. Constitution,” which was only to “provide for the common defense.”
After the break-up of the old Soviet Union, one would think that NATO was indeed “outdated,” in the words of Kirkpatrick, or “obsolete,” in the words of Trump. But when one realizes that NATO had a second purpose (perhaps the greater purpose, at least in the view of the globalist elites who presently have so much clout in Europe and America), they do not agree that it is obsolete.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel took the point for these elites who favor a continued American membership in NATO. “We Europeans have our fate in our own hands,” she told reporters in Berlin, adding, “I am personally waiting for the inauguration of the U.S. president. Then of course we will work with him on all levels.”
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, asserted that Trump’s comments had caused much anguish in Europe. “The interview statements of the American president-elect … caused, indeed here in Brussels, astonishment and agitation.”
France's top diplomat Jean-Marc Arault insisted that “the best response” to Trump was “the unity of Europeans.”
“A strong NATO is good for the United States, just as it is for Europe,” declared NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.
When Dwight Eisenhower took over command of NATO in 1950, he said he foresaw an alliance that would include American troops in Europe for about 10 years. In 1961, Eisenhower reportedly urged incoming President John Kennedy to begin the withdrawal of American troops from the continent. According to Richard Reeves, in his book President Kennedy: Profile of Power, Eisenhower told Kennedy that it was time to start bringing the troops home from Europe.
“America is carrying far more than her share of the free world defense,” Eisenhower pointed out, adding that it was time for the other nations of NATO to take on more of the costs for their own defense. Again, this statement is amazingly similar to remarks made recently by Trump, who asserted, “Number two — the countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to pay.”
In his book A Republic, Not an Empire, Pat Buchanan expressed the danger of a NATO alliance, as it is presently constituted. “With the expansion of NATO, we have undertaken the defense of Eastern Europe, forever, as well as Central Europe, from Norway to Turkey," he noted.… "U.S. war guarantees to Poland today, and Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Rumania tomorrow, may seem costless, painless, and popular. But so did England’s guarantee of Belgium’s neutrality in 1839, which dragged Britain into the Great War, cost it hundreds of thousands of dead, and inflicted on the empire a wound from which it would never recover.”
NATO — when viewed less as a military defense alliance, and more as a means of reducing the national sovereignty of its member nations — is understandably not considered obsolete. On the contrary, NATO’s expansion to include many of the nations of eastern Europe is extremely relevant to the goal of creating a multinational super-state on the continent of Europe that would also include the United States and Canada.
That is why the vote in the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU) — Brexit — was such a blow to the aspirations of these global elites. When America’s incoming president praises Britain’s leaving the EU as “so smart,” and insists, “I think Brexit is going to end up being a great thing,” all the efforts of these global elites to build an international governing structure are threatened.
As Kirkpatrick stated in her 1990 essay, Americans should be concerned about an “internationalism” that “looks at the world and asks what needs to be done — with little explicit concern for the national interest.” She pointed out, “Foreign policy becomes a major aspect of a society only if its government is expansionist, imperial, aggressive, or when it is threatened by aggression.”
No wonder that non-interventionist commentator Patrick Buchanan lauded Kirkpatrick in 2007, in an article in The American Conservative, as “the good Neocon.” And it should not be surprising that President George H.W. Bush found no place for her in his administration.
Indeed, it is possible to believe that the words of Kirkpatrick, written in 1990, could be repeated by Trump in 2017 (although certainly in a different style and tone than the scholarly Kirkpatrick), when she observed, “The United States performed heroically in a time when heroism was required,” but “the time when America should bear such unusual burdens is past. With the return of ‘normal’ times we can again become a normal nation.”
It will not be easy, however, because a goal of being a “normal nation” again (a nation running its own affairs), is one which is already being challenged by powerful forces inside our nation, and in Europe.
diminish European fear of a resurgent Germany...
That was when half of Germany was under USSR.
But I would never trust them fully if I were other European nations.
As far as GHWB mentioned in the article, I will still wish for a recovery, even though most of my being is fighting against caring.
NATO needs a reorg just like the UN. When NATO includes countries that do not like America, it’s time for a reassessment.
At least its being revealed there are such things as “Globalists” - and conservatives are realizing 1) they control most international institutions and finance and 2) their agenda is pretty evil.
It doesn’t take much to rile globullists.
READ THIS. IT WILL GIVE YOU THE TRUE CONTEXYT IN WHICH TRUMP IS ACTING:
The Sheriff is back in town.
The Truth About the Obama ‘Presidency’ .He was not presidential.
And so would say Winston Curchill if he were alive today, and in whose view of history I was thoroughly trained by Professor Emeritis Gilbert Allardyce of the UNB Dept.of History, most of the faculty in my day had fought in Europe. It was no accident that President Obama quickly whisked the Churchill Bust on loan out of the oval office and back to the British Embassy in Washington, on his first day in office.Obama was about to revise history in his own image, or so he thought, just as so many utopians had attempted before in Europe and elsewhere.Since when must our politicians promise us salvation and not merely constitutional governance? We actually can save ourselves we do not need government for that, neh?
We need to understand exactly what is happening. This is big picture stuff. Very Important, especially to those of us who have friends overseas, or who live outside the USA and Canada.
It was Obama who introduced uncertainty into our traditional alliances, including Japan, not Trump as presently claimed by the left.
In particular all of our allies watched in horror and disbelief when Obama abandoned US allies Libya and Egypt , using various ideological politically correct excuses of disagreement on the internal affairs of those nations.Libya was destroyed by NATO, a travesty.
Trump is repairing that damage and DE-emphasizing the Saudi role in America’s international affairs.The Sods have one last chore to do.Look after the refugees of the Levant.
The EU bent over for Obama, the great Nobel Peace Prize recipient.Obama entered, drank their wine,ate their cheese, denigrated their anti-Muslim crackers,smelled their perfume,breached stuffy protocols, kissed male leaders on the lips, convinced the EU of his moral superiority as Americas first blackish president. They believed their own myth.Japan does not.Japan remembered the utopian fascism of Tojo while Europe all but forgot the utopian-ism of Hitler and Mussolini.But Obama failed to convince the Queen of England. Why?
Obama then used Europe to create his Arab Spring, releasing millions of refugees from the Levant, Libya and Africa, all aimed at the heart of Russia,a US betrayal of its allies, Libya and Egypt, an exercise in modern demographic warfare via community organizing.Putin saw Obama coming and seized the Crimea and Eastern Ukraine to prevent Muslim refugees from entering Russia, and aided Syria, and Iran...stopping Obama short for the embarrassing sophomore that he was.But it cost the innocent lives of millions, a fact unpublished even today.
The masses of refugees created by Obama and Clinton streamed into Western Europe, crossing the Mediterranean, sliding into Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and beyond. Brussels and the EU played their politically correct cards, accepting the demographic warfare fomented by Obama, who even now continues to hoodwink Europe and the EU, assuring them that their world will not fall apart as the Muslim hordes continue to descend on Germany. Europe is losing itself.
Trump is right, Brexit is right. Its a new world. And Shinzo Abe is right.
And we all now see Obama defined as the Utopian liberal fascist that he is, who convinced Europe that he was not just another shuck and jive politician, once again Europe believed in a Utopia, just as they had accepted the Utopias of Hitler and Mussolini. Hoodwinked yet again, but this time by an American presidential psychopomp, whose similarities to his European predecessor utopians went completely unnoticed, even when they were complicit in the illegal destruction of Libya , and destroyed the 8th wonder of the world, The Great Man Made River, genocide caused by destroying the water supply of a whole people.You won’t read about that in any liberal progressive rag. The EU should be ashamed of itself.It certainly does not deserve to continue.But we need NATO to balance an aggressively defensive Russia.
If the EU does not take the opportunity afforded by Trump to repudiate Obama, they will become Muslim nations, or become the conquered of Russia. The EU has only a short amount of time to realize its foolishness in the destruction of Libya at the hands of utopian liberal fascism, a whole nation destroyed by the very political correctness which now threatens the destruction of Europe as we know it.
Merkel must go. LepPin must win France. Its all about to begin: the battle for the heart and soul of Europe. Britain is safe,only for the moment.Spain is also about to suffer attack from Morocco and West Sudan, but we won;t read about that either. Its not covered in the general news..
Brussels is done, but Europe? We shall see.America will yet again attempt to rescue Europe from itself.But there is little enthusiasm for it after what Europe and Obama did to Libya, an act of infamy which will go down in history as one of the most heinous acts ever perpetrated on a third world nation of camel herders by the so called civilized nations of NATO. SHAME! Tripoli, a former radiant city of trade and commerce, seeking to bring its populace into the modern world, lies in rubble.
Obama has been running around Europe like a one armed paper hanger as his international grift falls completely apart.Trump and his allies know perfectly well what to do next. The effects of Arab Spring on Europe must be stopped.No more demographic warfare will be allowed.The Saudis will pay for the relocation of the refugees created by Obama, or they will sit by and watch them die. This is the true Obama legacy.
Meanwhile Japan under Shinzo Abe gets it, Europe excluding Britain does not.
Canada ? I will remain silent. But we need change very badly to address pragmatic issues presented by the various economic changes in Europe and the United States. We can no longer hug ourselves into food for the dinner table.Jobs are needed.
The West is having a paradigm shift. It was almost too long in coming: A good read from 2009:
Barrack Obama, by Kyle Ann Shiver
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/barack_obama_the_quintessentia_1.html
“NATO was formed in a different era, in the aftermath of World War I, as the Stalin-led Soviet Union brought many countries in eastern Europe behind the tyranny of the “Iron Curtain” — nations such as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. The Russian war machine appeared to many in the West poised to sweep across western Europe as well, taking over the western part of Germany, France, and perhaps even Great Britain.”
NATO formed first. The Warsaw pact was formed afterwards. The Soviets ruled their sector with an iron fist. But the main evidence for a Soviet intent to attack all of Europe almost all came from the former Nazi intel operation of Reinhardt Gehlen, which was absorbed wholesale into the CIA. These Nazis had a very strong vested interest in convincing the allies a Soviet attack was imminent. They wanted to escape the noose for Nazi crimes. They pulled it off easily as the allies had almost no other sources behind the iron curtain. But yes, a few decades of foreign policy, especially after Stalin died was deeply affected by Nazis desperate to escape punishment and selling a tale.
??????
“NATO needs a reorg just like the UN. When NATO includes countries that do not like America, it’s time for a reassessment.”
Sarge, it goes well beyond whether or not certain countries “like America” or not. Here we sit, the “financial supporter” of most of Europe, while these countries are allowed to avoid being responsible for their own defense. Europe has co-opted our politicians since the end of WWII into thinking that our defending them was our “responsibility” while they spent their internal financial resources building up Socialist governments with huge doles to their citizens. So essentially, we have been bankrolling Europe for 70 years. So the word “reassessment” should really mean “allowing Europe to start defending itself with it’s own money.” And it’s ditto for the UN. We need to step out of our “financial traces” there too. It’s up to President Trump to take the “kick me” sign off of our back.
And finally, we should demand that the Germans start actually building their “Nazi Thunderbirds” (i.e. their Mercedes, BMWs, Pooches, Audis, and VWs) here 100%.
No more of this crap about shipping the high-dollar value parts here from Krautistan and assembling cars here. Same for the Japanese and the Koreans.
A new day has dawned; thank you God. I agree totally with Rush this morning when he advised President Trump and his staff and GOP members of the US Congress and elsewhere to never give Liberals an inch; never ever again. I have always said “climb in the RAT gutter and fight them using their tactics back on them; only ten times harder.”
Liberals are the scourge of the earth, in my opinion. Liberalism is truly a mental disorder.
Oh, I have said as much on other threads! I am tired of “supporting” people/countries who will not do so themselves!! Let ‘me go down.
A metastaric cancer..
A metastaric cancer..
A metastaric cancer..
There's a neat movie called "Sailor of the King" where a British POW aboard a damaged German ship breaks free, and with the aid of a stolen rifle, snipes at the German repair party until help arrives. During a discussion with one of the other prisoners, the older guy says "They're not a bad lot - just don't let 'em get on top."
Great quote :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.