NATO's Last Chance

We've all heard the hype about how NATO's credibility is at stake in Afghanistan. Without continuing to carry Washington's water in Afghanistan, so the line goes, the Alliance is meaningless. Cute.

Let's remember how NATO got embroiled in Afghanistan. It was so the U.S. could pursue its lark in Iraq to rid the world of all of those nasty WMDs, or so that line went. What is now obvious is that the NATO nations simply served as enablers to a dysfunctional war of aggression and conquest. We were sold a bill of goods by Washington, plain and simple. It was all a big fraud, a scam, but somehow the U.S. still expects us to do the "honourable" thing.

It's time NATO demanded an accounting, a balancing of the books. It's time NATO told Washington that enough is enough, no third Middle Eastern war. Bad enough to be left to battle insurgents coming across the border from America's trusted ally in its Global War on Terror, Pakistan. There's no need to add to that burden a horde of weapons and insurgents pouring in from Iran.

If Bush/Cheney are mad enough to set the entire Muslim world ablaze, they can damned well do it on their own. NATO's jumped-up secretary-general ought to actually do something for the alliance members - tell Washington that we've had it, no more of its botched wars. If NATO can't or won't rein in the Americans, the alliance has outlived its usefulness anyway.