July 7, 2004
NO THANKS, WE'D PREFER A TINKER'S DAM:
Rising doubts about NATO (DAVID HOWELL, 7/08/04, Japan Times)
The June 28-29 summit meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Istanbul was a sour affair. The so-called allies within NATO could not agree on how to help with reconstruction in Iraq and ended up merely offering to do some training of Iraqi personnel, but not much more.Bad feelings intensified when U.S. President George W. Bush chose the occasion to urge the European Union to speed up their admittance of Turkey to the club -- an issue on which the French, in particular, have grave doubts. French President Jacques Chirac promptly told Bush and the Americans to mind their own business.
But the unhappy gathering gave rise to an even more fundamental question, namely, whether NATO itself has a future.
If you're just now asking the question you haven't been paying attention since 1945. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 7, 2004 9:17 PM
Bring down the curtain, the farce has ended.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at July 8, 2004 2:01 AMWho the heck let France back in?
Posted by: M Ali Choudhury at July 8, 2004 4:55 AMAgreed. NATO has become a kind of UN-without-the-wogs that serves only to make conservative multilateralists and Atlanticists feel warm and cosy. It is also a PR fraud on the public. Everybody thought it was so great when it expanded eastwards, but nobody explained we were all committed to go to war automatically if anybody attacked Latvia. Even Latvians, if Bosnia is a precedent.
Both sides, or rather all sides, of the NATO divide are fuming and accusing because the damn thing has no underlying rationale. The debate within is like that between an alcoholic and his/her co-dependent spouse and every bit as healthy.
Posted by: Peter B at July 8, 2004 5:06 AMHaving spent a fair amount of time in NATO back in the day of the ugly, unshaven head of monolothic, hegemonic communism, I can only say that NATO has reached its sell-by date.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at July 8, 2004 7:16 AM