NATO is getting a lot of pressure to show it’s got value. That’s my opinion. Putin is making NATO become real.
Putin is making NATO become “European” if anything. Another “international organization” backed by the USA that has gotten away from US control. Biggest mistake was doing the will of “Europe” w.r.t. the former Yugoslavia.
It only creates the illusion of NATO being “real.” The real goal is separating the United States from Europe; the Holy Grail of Soviet foreign policy.
In Putin’s reality, power does not flow from the barrel of a gun. It flows through a gas pipeline. NATO without the United States can only be weak and dependent on Russia. It will eventually be Putin’s plaything.