NATO Proves We're Not All in This Together

PARIS -- Where has NATO been during this pandemic? U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron have repeatedly referred to their nations being at war with the coronavirus, so why haven't we seen a coordinated international response to the "attack"?

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization operates on the premise that an attack on one member country warrants a response by all. In 2003, NATO formed the Multinational Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Defense Battalion. According to NATO's website, this unit is "prepared for deployment in crisis situations such as natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks and industrial accidents, including those involving hazardous material." A global pandemic would certainly seem to qualify.

So what would NATO's response to a pandemic look like? By the alliance's own standards, it would have a voluntary lead member nation with other countries contributing troops, equipment and logistical support, with components such as decontamination stations and deployable laboratories.

NATO's website introduces us to Lt. Col. Piotr Wachna, deputy commander of the 4th Chemical Regiment of the Polish army. Wachna is also the current head of the CBRN. Photos show his team in hazmat suits disinfecting hospital beds and hallways -- in Poland. What we don't see are brigades of biological warfare specialists going to war with a virus abroad.

Unlike its bombings of Libya and Yugoslavia, NATO's war on coronavirus has been more discreet. It's been so subtle, in fact, that any 15-year-old kid with a computer connection and a blog could achieve similar results. NATO has resorted to posting appeals on its website that amount to: "Hey, Country X needs protective equipment. Anyone have any?" The requests ask suppliers to contact the country in need directly.

To be fair, NATO announced a few days ago that 10 CBRN medical specialists from Romania will be helping Alabama authorities in a two-week deployment. But for weeks, China, Cuba and Russia have been seen sending teams of doctors and supplies to coronavirus hotspots all over the world, including NATO member countries. Critics have accused them of exploiting the crisis for propaganda purposes -- every act of assistance can be played as a public relations and diplomacy card, after all -- but that doesn't mean it's not helpful.

NATO should have mobilized to outshine its traditional Cold War foes. Instead, it seems largely focused on fighting what it considers "disinformation" coming from Russia and China.

"We have several examples of statements coming from Moscow and Beijing, which are not correct, which try to undermine the cohesion of NATO allies, and also portrays NATO in the absolutely wrong way," NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said last month, adding that both countries "portray NATO allies as if we are unable to, for instance, protect our elderly people or that we are not able to work together. We are working together. That's exactly what we do."

It's not disinformation that NATO allies were hijacking each other's mask shipments. Sweden's Sveriges Radio reported that a Swedish producer's masks, which were being sent from Chinese factories to Spain and Italy, were intercepted in France. And there have been myriad reports of mask hoarding, blocking and hijacking in the U.S. by states competing with each other for supplies.

Nor is it disinformation that the elderly in care homes have been disproportionately affected in NATO countries.

What NATO's secretary-general calls "disinformation" is really just inconvenient information. There has indeed been a lack of solidarity between NATO member states, with every country looking out for itself. It's not an unreasonable position, of course. Anyone who's flown in a plane knows that before you help your neighbor with an oxygen mask, you're supposed to make sure that your own mask is properly secured.

Rather than focusing on how it can capitalize on this crisis to peddle questionable propaganda against old Cold War foes, NATO should be examining how it could perform better. Heaven forbid there's ever a biological attack on a NATO member country that kills millions of people. What would NATO do then? Coordinate equipment bids online? Send 10 medical professionals into the field two months later?

At the very least, NATO could have organized the transport logistics and security of medical supplies from the outset. And if it really wanted to get into the disinformation-busting business, it could have cautioned its members against using "coronavirus cases" -- a measure largely dependent on a country's ability or willingness to test -- as a benchmark. NATO also could have lobbied its member countries to establish a uniform definition of what constitutes a coronavirus death. Instead, some countries (including the U.S.) have been counting those with serious underlying medical conditions that could have caused their death as coronavirus victims. Countries with lower fatality counts seem to have a more strict interpretation of what constitutes a coronavirus death. This disparity has impeded objective analysis of the epidemic.

NATO blew an opportunity to reposition itself during a global emergency. Instead, it's still obsessed with ghosts from the last century's Cold War.

According to NATO's website, this unit is "prepared for deployment in crisis situations such as natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks and industrial accidents

Personally I think this mission creep. NATO and armed forces should focus on killing and breaking things. Focus is the key to effectiveness. Every dollar spent on "crisis situations" is not a dollar spent on NATO's primary mission. Every minute spent on preparing for "crisis situations" is not a minute preparing to kill and break things. Maybe NATO doesn't have a primary mission any longer. Perhaps it is just another tax-payer funded organization to make useless government jobs.

I do not think a Pandemic is a matter within NATO’s primary mission responsibility.

IF the NATO members had a consensus that the cause of the Pandemic was (a) man made by another power, and (2) directed at NATO members, then someone among the NATO members could put it on a NATO meeting agenda for consideration. Minus that, what should any part of NATO do that the sovereign national organs of its members should not or cannot do??

Some think that “NATO” assets are the combined military assets of it members. In fact, such a definition of “NATO” assets would likely only apply in a global military confrontation wherein its members put all their military assets under a NATO command. In peacetime “NATO” assets only apply to those designated as such by each of the members, and for either the EU members or the U.S. that is a minor portion of their national military assets. For all the things the author suggests NATO do in Europe for the “pandemic”, the member states in Europe have far more assets under their control for doing those things and have no lack of ability to coordinate their use. So why hasn’t NATO stepped in to help? Its members did not ask it to, and that is what NATO does - just what its members ask it to do. It does not go out and proclaim missions for itself lacking a consensus that comes from its members.

Liberals are makign sure we’re all in this together by refusign to allow HCQ and Zinc to save our lives, and by sending sick peopel into nursing homes to keep the virus spreading-

Liberals don’t want an end to this virus- if they did- they would be demanding people get HCQ BEFORE they end up in the hospitals when it’s too late-

IF liberals wanted an end to this=- they would be throwing everything they had at this virus- everything- especially HCQ+zinc- We would have had clinical trials done now, and many many studies proving the efficiency of HCQ+Zinc-

normally it would be a rotten thing to say- but liberals seriously do want people dying- they’ve proven that in this pandemic- They want control over everyone- and so they ban life saving drugs- so that they can maintain control in the hypocritical name of ‘safety for everyone’

absolutely disgusting-

At the end of the day the United States of America needs noone, nobody, nothing from NATO or any other country. I work with some former Air Force folks that spent their time in the service working on combat aircraft. According to them, if the US went to war with ANY country and the President “took the leash off”, there isn’t one country on the planet that could last more than a day before it’s military and government machine were destroyed. And that could be accomplished with just US Air Force(the largest air force in the world, by a bunch) assets. They didn’t include the US Navy(2nd largest air force in the world) or the US Marine Corps(4th largest, IIRC)assets. And they didn’t include the Grunts on the ground.

Ergo, we do not need NATO for anything, it needs us. No Blue Hat/Helmet should ever be allowed on the soil of the United States of America.

It is one of my most sincere hopes that at some time in his second term, President Trump outlines how much the rest of the world hates the US, how the UN/WHO/IMF/etc etc detest the US and its citizens and uses the information to expel the UN and the rest of them from the USA, once and for all. Let them all go to Africa, ME or Europe, instead of living under the security blanket of the US government and NYPD.

U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron have repeatedly referred to their nations being at war with the coronavirus, so why haven't we seen a coordinated international response to the "attack"?

When did Trump ever indicate he was interested in participating in a coordinated "attack". Trump is concentrating on the U.S. Europe can fend for themselves.

The basic problem is both NATO at large and the US is neither have any counter BW capability to speak of. The defense bureaucracies will point to regulations and manuals assigning the responsibility. But there is little or no capability. Interestingly the Army counter BW facility at Ft Detrick, MD has stayed silent. several interpretations can be inferred.

As long as Turkey is in NATO, it is a bogus organization.

Partner, u got that right! Great post!

Also, as long as Turkey can not admit that they killed almost 2 million Armenians in the Holocaust of 1910 thru 1914 and Turkey also took way too much land from the Armenians.

We already know that Turkey is a Mooselimb country and that is all we need to know.

So what would NATO's response to a pandemic look like?

Since none of the prepared responses would have been excepted for little time before another response by more "experts" were broadcast far and wide with other wild statistics were being published as fast as the "experts" could put them out; confusion & perplexity, the coronavirus was like a contortionist , twisting and turning, taking all matter of license with the facts...head on car crashes were Coronavirus/ Covid-19 caused...death by age-related causes were Coronavirus caused.....statistics were off the wall; the Media did little or NO fact checking....politicians assumed they were scientists over night and added their ill-gotten views to the mayhem & bedlam which now ruled this imposed pandemic.

Politically it was a BOON....Look how the Democrats eagerly responded; trolls discouraging Big Pharma on available cheep drugs like hydroxychloroquine, trying to keep the economy killing lock-down going. Not so fast Pelosi/Schumer, real Americans are coming to the rescue, demanding their RIGHTS. The power-free-for-all is ending; the propaganda blitz is recognized for what it was/is and standing in the middle of the supposed rubble of a failed economy is our intrepid Leader and President Donald J. Trump! Under his leadership, America leads again.

To the Moon and beyond Mr. President!

President Trump has brought out the truth of Europe’s failure to keep up with their financial obligations toward NATO, we had been financing 80% the cost of NATO’s military obligations toward the defense of member states. No Europe is pissed because their failure to invest in their security was exposed.

NATo should have disappeared at the moment the Soviet Union disintegrated. I have no idea why we are still paying for the defense of Western Europe, 75 years after the end of WWII and 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Hear hear. We can talk alliance or partnership with Poland and the former Eastern Bloc. Western Europe can run around with their idiotic EU military. It is time to truly end the NATO uselessness in Europe as China is lurking.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.