What is your view of the continuation and expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?

17 comments

1. You know, I’m not uneducated. I read the news. I know as much or more about NATO as probably 95% of the posters here.

   And still, my stance is: I do not have enough information to deserve an opinion on that question.

   And there are sure a whole lot of people spouting off about geopolitics they don’t know the first fucking thing about.

2. Explain how nations willingly joining a ***defensive alliance*** is a provocation.

   I’ll wait.

3. Completely in favor of it. It’s not provoking anyone, that’s an excuse.

4. > Is NATO protecting European countries from Russian aggression…or is it provoking it?

   This reads like Tucker Carlson-level trolling “just asking questions” or literal Russian propaganda.

   If Russia fucked off and left neighboring countries alone, NATO wouldn’t be necessary. It’s a deterrent, it’s a necessary preventative measure. Show me an example of NATO acting aggressively towards Russia. Russia defines NATO “aggression” as not allowing them to overtake sovereign territory.

5. I’m cautiously optimistic at the expansion of the alliance.

   Ukraine does not need to join until at least the hostilities and occupation land grab is solved. Admit any other nations immediately if they meet the criteria.

6. I’ll put it this way.

   If China, Iran, and Russia were putting ICBM’s, cruise missiles, and bases in Mexico, how long do you think it would take for the US to invade Mexico, bomb the fuck out of every perceived threat, and set-up our own puppet government?

   If you answered “Never!”, you’re stupid.

7. It had its use in the Cold War, and it is a relic of bygone era that is running on inertia that many countries( cough cough Europe) didn’t want to fund. Trump might have been wrong about a lot of things, but he was right to call out the Europeans for not spending 2%. I say this, while wanting to reduce our own military spending and footprint around the globe BTW.

   The Eastern European countries could have made their own defensive pact, or better yet, the EU could have done it.

8. I think the events unfolding in Ukraine prove NATO is needed just as much now as it ever has been.

9. Every county invaded or attacked by the USSR or post-USSR Russia has not been a NATO member. No NATO member has been attacked by either entity. NATO works. I don’t care how Russia feels about that.

   I think NATO will welcome two new members fairly soon.

10. Russia won’t attack NATO countries. As stupid as Putin is, he knows that in a full-scale war he would be obliterated by the US with or without nukes. This is why he’s scared of NATO, he couldn’t do what he’s doing in Ukraine if it were a NATO member, and now other ambitions of his in Finland are at risk.

    He feels threatened by it but is too scared to act. That’s why he attacked Ukraine when the president’s stance changed from anti-NATO under Trump to pro-NATO under Biden.

11. I’m delighted to see it continue to expand and really hope to see Finland and Sweden on board soon. Russia tries to play the victim about its neighbors joining a defensive alliance but never seems to stop and wonder why those countries are so eager to join.

    Well, it’s either that or the Russian government knows damn well that it has nobody to blame but itself and is just pretending to be wronged, but that’s crazy talk!

12. Fundamentally, the point of NATO is to keep member states from being invaded by Russia. Russia has invaded zero NATO members. I think it’s working fine, so far. IMO, It would have been much better to have admitted Ukraine as soon as the troop-gathering on the Russian-Ukrainian border began so they could invoke Article 5, rather than make loud proclamations, but I’m not the President so I don’t know why it didn’t happen. My guess is because Biden absolutely does *not* want to get involved in another war, after everything that has happened over the last twenty years.

13. Personally, I adamantly oppose it. I’d prefer that NATO didn’t exist at all. Its original purpose, to defend Western Europe from a Soviet invasion is a threat that no longer exists. It tried to reinvent itself as an international police force in the former Yugoslavia with poor results. And despite the resurgence of Greater Russian chauvinism and imperialism, Russia is for political and material reasons no longer poses any threat whatsoever to Western Europe. Nor do the countries that form the backbone of NATOs military power have enough vested interest in the sovereignty of the former Soviet republics to come to their aid militarily in the event of a Russian invasion, regardless of the Article 5. Were that provision of the treaty put to the test in the defense of a former Soviet republic, the alliance would almost certainly collapse. So it really only checks Russian imperialism as a bluff. One could argue, probably correctly, that even a bluff constitutes a deterrent against the rebuilding of the Russian Empire, and thats fine, but it isn’t enough of a reason to justify continuing the Alliance. It is a relic of the 20th century projection of US military power, which is itself waning and for good reason. I favor d-militarization everywhere and in general, so unless there is an immanent threat to justify it, I don’t think the US has any business having formal military relations with other countries, and the political winds in the US are blowing in that direction and have been ever since the Iraq disaster.

14. Well so far Russia’s attempt to stop a country from joining NATO has made that country a de facto member of NATO, pushed two other nations to abandon neutrality and ask to join NATO, and has a few others working on closer NATO relationships.

15. Probably protecting, and at the very least protecting them from each other who may fight over who should own certain cities and ethnic minorities in the Eastern block.

16. I mean… what is thr US gaining at this point? It seems like a never ending liability.

17. Why are all the countries we invade or threaten to invade joining NATO?!? Clearly, this is Western Conspiracy!!!

    – Vladimir Putin, probably.