Posted on 08/13/2008 6:10:44 AM PDT by Crush
Recent fighting between Russian and Georgian forces (ostensibly over Georgia’s breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia) has spawned fears of a widening war in the Caucasus, Moscow’s resurging military aggressiveness, and the perceived inability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to deal with either.
So far, the sum total of the West’s response to the Russian invasion has been negligible. And experts contend the invasion may be the kick-start needed to re-galvanize the nearly 60-year-old mutual-defense alliance formed during the early years of the Cold War as a means of collective defense against the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, a kick-start doesn’t help Georgia today.
A former Soviet satellite state turned loyal friend of America, Georgia is an official member of NATO’s Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) and a candidate for full membership in NATO. Therein lies the problem for Moscow.
(Excerpt) Read more at humanevents.com ...
NATO’s finished. They might as well shut down its headquarters in Brussels based upon its sorry performance in Afghanistan and now with Georgia.
We should pull out of the U.N, out of NATO and every other meaningless alliance we are part of. We do not gain one benefit from any of these organizations. All they do is suck money out of us to exist.
So when do we invade? Do we go to war with Russia over Georgia, yes or no?
NATO has never been anything more than a stationary aircraft carrier for the US. It still serves that role well. It’s only when we try to push the Euros beyond that role that NATO ends up looking like a failure.
The Germans and the French seem to be stubling blocks in NATO. All the instability is causing everybody to walk on eggshells.
Neville Chamberlain redux.
At minimum, we send in some special forces and weapons to the Georgians.
No need to invade. Just sneak U.S. Spec Ops into Georgia through Turkey, with lots of AT-4s and Javelins and plenty of Stingers, and let them help the Georgians wreak havoc on the Russkis using small unit tactics.
Isn’t it about time we had some fleet exercises with ally Turkey, going through the Bosporus to conduct them?
Maybe, or maybe not. But some “Georgian” SEALs could certainly facilitate some unfortunate accidents throughout the Russian blockading fleet.
>>>West’s unwillingness to respond, would result in a successful military campaign which would enable Russia to reassert its dominance in the region and beyond.
el correcto.
si.
“We should pull out of the U.N, out of NATO and every other meaningless alliance we are part of.”
Sounds fun, but how do you win the game when you take your ball and go home? The United States is the leader of the free world - cutting and running is not an effective leadership philosophy.
Leadership is not taking Boy Scouts to eat ice cream, it’s getting them to do their homework. If we want to continue to be the leader of the free world, we need to kick NATO and the UN in the pants and reform them. A strong NATO would have stopped any Russian aggression before it started. I don’t see a use for the UN, but we need NATO.
The lack of response to events in Georgia may temporarily embolden Moscow, but on the flipside strengthen the commitment of NATO members to the alliance. NATO has gone to great lengths to ensure Russia that it is not a coalition of belligerents aimed at encircling that country, but a means of promoting defense and mutual cooperation among states in the region.
Does this policy make any sense?
Of course the goal of NATO is to contain Russia and encircling her by adding the Ukraine and Georgia is exactly the right thing to do. The Russians aren't stupid. They know that is our goal and weak sounding statements by NATO meant to restrain the belligerent Russians just has the opposite effect as the Georgians have learned. Europe is a paper tiger and the Russans know it.
When this situation turns toward The Ukraine, what will NATO do??? Nothing. Then Moldova???Then Poland??? When will a line be drawn in the sand?
Actually the French got out of NATO in 1966. They decided that the thing wouldn't be of much help in the case of a real Soviet attack, and thus decided to build their own nuclear weapons and get out of the NATO integrated military command.
Maybe the French did have a point. After all, article 5 of NATO stipulates that an attack against one member is viewed as an attack against all members. If Georgia was a member, would NATO have sent in boots to fight the Russians? I read an interesting article yesterday that was saying that ironically NATO was lucky that Georgia was not a member, since (if it was) it would have shown conclusively that NATO was a paper tiger.
The thing that bothers me the most about NATO is that all the heavy lifting is left to the US. Anyways, geo-politics sure are interesting.
My question - had Georgia already been granted membership in NATO, would NATO have taken action?
My suspicion is no. The reason - NATO has proven to be little more effectual than the UN.
What was the original purpose of NATO? My understanding (and excuse me public school education if I am wrong) was to stand against Russian imperialism. A unified “line in the sand”.
So, here we go seeing Russia back at its old imperial ways - storming on into a sovereign nation after engineering an “excuse” to “intervene” on behalf of an “oppressed population” who just wanted to join Russia... Further, after agreeing to a ceasefire, they have resumed the fight, apparently marching on towards the capital of the sovereign nation, killing civilians and looting on what appears to be a massive scale.
And the crickets are chirping....
The Russian fleet is not even close to what it once was; it has deteriorated far more since the fall of the wall than the rest of the Russian armed forces. It is precisely our strongest point against their weakest. Further, it is important to strengthen the hand of the armed forces in Turkey, who are the greatest bulwark to Islamism there.
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