The NATO alliance is already under strains in Afghanistan that some speculate may bring the organization to collapse. Now, there's a move afoot - driven by the US - to extend NATO's commitments by way of a "partnership" deal between the alliance and Finland, Sweden and - wait for it - Australia, Japan and South Korea. This initiative was disclosed today by U.S.Under Secretary of State of Political Affairs, Nicholas Burns.
Since Washington has been treating NATO as its own Foreign Legion, it's hardly surprising that it would want to extend the alliance's responsibilities to Asia. Let's hope we get some serious debate about this in Parliament well before the NATO summit in Riga at the end of this month. Better yet, let's not take the alliance for granted and postpone any decision on this until all member states have an opportunity to thrash it out in their legislatures.
2 comments:
Your perceptions of how Nato works, and what it is there for is totally off base.
Truth be told Manley Man, no one's quite sure just what NATO means anymore. 30 years ago we were clear on what it was for. Times change and nobody has really sat down and redefined NATO and how it's to serve all it's members, not just the US. Just look at the lack of concensus on Afghanistan and the strains that is putting on the alliance. Look at Serbia and Kosovo to understand the confusion.
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