Far from the Atlantic and not particularly northerly, the tiny Balkan nation of Montenegro has formally been invited today to join NATO, as part of what the alliance is presenting as an ongoing growth strategy. A nation of 600,000 people, Montenegro first made efforts to secure an invite nine years ago.
NATO last expanded in 2009, with the admission of Albania and Croatia. Montenegro is one of four nations that had been actively seeking membership. Among the others, Bosnia and Herzegovina seems the only realistic potential member, as Georgia’s existing territorial disputes would preclude membership, and Greece doesn’t want to allow Macedonia in because of their name. Ukraine has also recently talked up seeking membership, but similarly has outstanding territorial disputes.
Russia has objected to NATO’s repeated expansions in the past two decades, with those expansions absorbing the bulk of their former Warsaw Pact allies, and sees the continued expansion as a deliberately provocative move aimed at ultimately “surrounding” Russia.
With its accession, Montenegro will be the third smallest active military within NATO, larger only than Iceland and Luxenbourg. With no active warplanes and only two active patrol boats, the addition to the alliance will be trivial to the broader balance of power between NATO and Russia.
Americans can feel so much safer now, knowing Montenegro has our back.
Another commitment with no counterbalancing capability – the story of NATO. It remains to be seen whether article 5 has any real meaning. Hard to imagine Germany or France drafting millions of young men and women to be cannon fodder to defend Turkey or the Baltic States.
Professional armies can be deployed by governments without the consent of the governed. It is a different matter when you need millions of conscripts to die for "article 5". NATO commitments are a mile wide and an inch deep.
Entangling alliance like no other in history.
Millions of conscripts? What century are you living in? No one uses conscripts or big batallions of infantry "grunts" nowadays! But clearly, Putin's increasingly open conflict with NATO is scaring his American supporters. And, of course, Article V applies indirectly to Ukraine inasmuch as any Russian military activity in Ukraine, even what has happened so far, would justify recourse to Article V, since it constitutes an implied threat to several NATO members.
Article 5 applies to armed attacks on NATO members, not to "implied threats," nor to support for seceded states that used to be part of non-member states. I thought it would be hard for you to get any dumber than your numerous appeals to the Helsinki Final Agreement (which neither Ukraine nor Russia are signatory to and which isn't binding even on signatory states), but you're obviously trying very hard to do so.
Notwithstanding fancy techno-weapons, fighting is done by soldiers with weapons very similar to WW2. A conflict with Russia will take millions of lives even if it does not descend into a world-ending nuclear exchange. Only fools believe some imaginary technology can subdue a country with the size and population of Russia with anything less than an ocean of blood.
Lay out a world map and place where all the NATO/US flags are positioned, and then, place where all the Russian flags are positioned. Yep, it is opposite of what you say.
It's NATO who is playing with fire
Montenegro wil be the first country stupid enough to join the same organisation that bombed it in 1999.
Immediately after WWII, Germany allied with Britain and the US, which had just bombed its cities into rubble. Also, Montenegro didn't become independent of Serbia until 2006 and Serbia was the primary target.
You could just as easily say Germany (east) "allied" with the USSR. I doubt either Germany really had a choice in the matter.
I wonder if anyone has told the Montenegrins that by joining NATO their government will be required to increase their defense spending disproportionately to their size and that there are other costs that will not benefit the citizens of Montenegro directly because of membership in NATO.
I'm amused to see that the pro-Putin camp is so desperate that it's clutching at this particular straw. As the whole of mankind has known since 1949, the alliance was so called because it brought together countries in North America and Europe, not because the countries were on the Atlantic and to the north! Montenegro's interest in NATO is probably due to Putin's antics in Ukraine, his sniffing around in Serbia and his dispute with Turkey. Putin's interest is the age-old Russian one of warm-water ports. He's locked into the Black Sea by Turkey's control of the Straits but if he could put Romania or Bulgaria plus Serbia and Montenegro into his pocket, he'd have a port on the Adriatic. The Montenegrans probably want to be in NATO just in case Putin strikes and with Serbia being hyped in certain quarters as Putin's "ally", that's hardly surprising.
NATO is an unjust organization now and a waste of money.
Mar 2, 2015 Relooking Europe: The Role of Land Forces
Please join us for a discussion with COL Foster about the future of land forces in Europe and the role of the 173rd Airborne Brigade going forward. The discussion will cover a range of issues and current events facing USAREUR, the 173rd Airborne Brigade's mission as part of OPERATION ATLANTIC RESOLVE, joint exercises with European allies, and the brigade's upcoming training mission in Ukraine.
https://youtu.be/3s7Dpm5RyJo
APRIL 02, 2014 NATO Plans Global Dominance NATO Plans Global Dominance
NATO was established in April 1949. It's a US imperial tool. It's been this way from inception. Washington provides the lion's share of funding. It's around 75%. Claiming a NATO "political and military alliance for peace and security" doesn't wash. It never did. It's polar opposite truth. NATO's mission is offense, not defense.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.ch/2014/04/nato-plans-g….
So, who is the aggressor here? yep, NATO.
What's new?