NATO Agrees to Formally Joint Anti-ISIS Coalition

Officials Insist Move Is 'Purely Symbolic'

Officials familiar with the situation say that NATO has agreed to join the US-led anti-ISIS coalition on an alliance level, with indications that Germany and France were the last nations to agree to the formal move, which will be announced during the Brussels summit.

All NATO members are already individually members of the anti-ISIS coalition, and diplomats say that the move will have no actual consequence, and seemingly is being done just for the sake of a “purely symbolic” gesture during President Trump’s visit.

President Trump has always been keen to bring NATO deeper into the ISIS war, of course, and has made a big deal about NATO’s obsolescence because it wasn’t formed specifically to deal with terrorism, claiming in April that “back when they did NATO there was no such thing as terrorism.

While shortly after his election most NATO officials were just attacking Trump for being too “pro-Russia,” recently they seem to be eager to please him, so long as it only requires symbolic actions that won’t amount to anything.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.