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Is NATO Useful?

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Randy Ludacer

Published: November 30, 2008

The recent dust up in Georgia followed by the neo-cons immediately urging the admission of Georgia and the Ukraine into NATO membership demonstrates how close we are coming to reigniting the cold war with Russia.

At its inception, the first NATO secretary general declared that its purpose was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." While this made some sense in 1949, NATO has now morphed into a military entente which is designed to end run the U.N. and maintain a bellicose posture toward Russia.

When the collapse of the Soviet Union came, perhaps we in the west celebrated to excess, rather than embrace the opportunity to bring Russia into the European community. Instead we expanded NATO membership until it rings the Russian border.

Now rather than expanding our attempts to co-opt the Russians into sharing our objectives in quieting the unrest in the middle east, we build radar and missile bases on its Polish border while blandly reassuring them that it is to defend against an as yet nonexistence Iranian threat.

It is not too long ago that concerns about missiles in Cuba and missiles in Turkey brought us close to an armed conflict between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.

The fear that that episode created is still part of the Russian paranoia with respect to the bona fides of western intentions.

Russia still remains a powerful force in the world, it's the single largest state in land mass and with oil resources and an agenda intended to recapture some of the respect lost when the U.S.S.R. imploded.

Pushing an alliance of small states which harbor some antipathy for Russia for historic reasons, ever closer to the Russian border and potential confrontation is a receipt for disaster.

Perhaps it is time for NATO to stand down and we redouble our efforts to revitalize the United Nations as the appropriate forum for nation states to confront each other over the conference table rather than across armed borders.

Randy Ludacer
Lake Placid

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