By: Tom Tancredo
The first lesson of the tragic Ukrainian war is that NATO has become an anachronism, not an asset to American foreign policy.
After literally months of warnings by Russian President Putin, the Russian invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24 should have come as no surprise. And yet, the world actually WAS shocked. How can this be happening with Sleepy Joe, European leaders, and the huge NATO bureaucracy promising dire consequences for Russia if Putin tried to annex Ukraine by military force?
Ukraine is not a member of NATO, and thus, NATO members have no treaty obligation to defend Ukraine’s independence. But somehow, a “unified NATO response” to a Russian invasion was assumed to be something for Putin to worry about.
The American news media and foreign policy establishment have dutifully and gleefully reported that “the invasion of Ukraine has unified NATO as never before!” Well, THAT ought to keep Putin awake at night. Nope. NATO unity was always assumed but means nothing in practical terms.
For months, the American news media covered incessant high-level meetings and Biden’s “personal diplomacy” via conversations with President Putin. Weeks ahead of the invasion, Biden held a press conference to announce his conclusion: “Putin has decided to invade Ukraine.” This Biden insight followed Putin’s long, televised lecture laying out the political and historical justification for the planned annexation: “Ukraine has always been a part of Russia,” Putin informed the world.
At the end of the day, after thousands of hours of Biden administration analysis of Russia’s plans and NATO alternatives if Russia did invade Ukraine, what was the plan developed to help the Ukrainian people resist and defeat the Russian invasion? There was no such plan, only a series of economic sanctions that would impose “painful costs” on Putin over the weeks and months ahead.
It ought to be scandalous that no one in Biden’s White House or at NATO headquarters claimed the announced sanctions would deter Putin from pursuing the annexation of Ukraine. The White House acknowledged that the announced “economic sanctions,” such as the freezing of assets and closing of Russian bank accounts, would not have much effect for at least 30 days. We can only wonder what comfort that prospect offers to Ukrainian patriots fighting Russian tanks in the streets of Kyiv.
It is true the United States and some NATO members are offering large quantities of military aid such as anti-tank weapons. To its credit, Germany is sending substantial military aid. But not one soldier from a single NATO nation will be joining the Ukrainian resistance.
NATO has been — and continues to be — the toothless tiger in the Ukrainian crisis, and this should not be a surprise to anyone. Yes, on a purely military level, Russia fears NATO. But that is irrelevant in the Ukrainian crisis. Why? Because Putin has no worry that NATO’s most powerful members, like Germany, will add to the list of economic sanctions the only thing Russian fears, a boycott of Russian oil and gas exports. The ugly truth is, Germany vetoed that severe NATO sanction from the beginning.
Americans need to be asking hard questions about the real value of NATO in dealing with the Vladimir Putins of this world. Americans who believe “America First” is the first principle in calculating the value of such alliances might well conclude that NATO has become an anachronism, not an asset.
The United States and Europeans should be offering ad delivering generous help and military assistance to Ukraine in its life-and-death struggle against Russian aggression. But NATO has proven as much an obstacle to such assistance as a necessary partner.
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America’s middle class is the TARGET of the EVIL EMPIRE—-thus the insane energy policy that has INFLATION on a near 1/2 century —-well I digress as i refused to vote for THE PUPPET.
America sits on at least 200 Years of : Oil, Natural Gas and 300 Years of coal—WHY BUY ENERGY???
THE WHITE HOUSE IS OCCUPIED by a communist Chinese PUPPET.
Biden gave Russia a pipeline and killed AMERICA’S ENERGY INDEPENDENCE. Kick his Administration to the CURB—now.
GOOD NIGHT!! gary
Rebrand NATO:
IA: Inter Allied
Free World
Free Nations
& add Japan, So Korea, Australia, NZ, Indonesia into mix
A major issue American citizens should have with NATO is that the U.S. provides more taxpayer money to support NATO while the U.S. has very little say in what NATO does. Our tax dollars are not being well invested with NATO, so why do we continue to waste tax dollars on NATO when we have so many issues within the U.S. we should be focusing on?