{"id":1469714,"date":"2024-06-06T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1469714"},"modified":"2024-06-06T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T13:00:00","slug":"natos-hairline-fissures-part-1-ukraine-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/natos-hairline-fissures-part-1-ukraine-membership\/1469714\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO’s Hairline Fissures Part 1: Ukraine Membership?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NATO’s Hairline Fissures Part 1: Ukraine Membership?<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Thaddeus G. McCotter via American Greatness<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

[This is the first in a two-part series about a pair of divisive issues within NATO regarding Ukraine.]<\/p>\n

In response to an earlier instance of Russian aggression, in his July 25, 1961, \u201cReport to the American People on the Berlin Crisis,\u201d President John F. Kennedy<\/a> warned: \u201cIf there is one path above all others to war, it is the path of weakness and disunity.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today, it is a warning that must not go unheeded by NATO,<\/strong> as the alliance sees hairline cracks within its unity over how to defend Ukraine, and the Russian aggressor threatens to widen the war beyond its current boundaries and conventional weaponry.<\/p>\n

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was founded after World War II to defend the United States and our Western European allies against Soviet aggression and prospective invasion. After the fall of the communist regime, NATO spent the next three decades or so expanding its membership ranks into Eastern Europe<\/strong>, combating terrorism, and engaging in an existential search for a new role in defending the free world.<\/p>\n

Yet, Russian revanchism has never rendered NATO\u2019s primary purpose antiquated. Under Mr. Putin\u2019s direction, Russia has invaded Georgia, Crimea, and now Ukraine\u2014all in what the Russian Vozhd<\/em> has designated his nation\u2019s \u201cnear abroad.\u201d Such Russian aggressions and further territorial ambitions have had a roborant effect upon NATO, refocusing it upon its original and never-discarded mission of defending its members from the self-perceived once-and-future eastern imperial empire.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As for the Russian perspective, be it during the Soviet Union or the present Russian Federation, NATO has always remained the primary and immediate obstacle to its expansionist aims. It is no exaggeration to assert that if Mr. Putin could accomplish one goal to ensure the security of Russia and the implementation of its imperial aims, it would be the destruction of NATO.<\/p>\n

As a military matter, however, it is not within Russia\u2019s military power to defeat NATO.<\/strong> Echoing what President Lincoln said about the military defeat of the United States, only NATO can defeat NATO. Again, it will not be because of Russian military arms. It will be because NATO is not only a military alliance. NATO is also a political alliance. In the current response to Russia\u2019s criminal invasion of Ukraine, politics appears to be NATO\u2019s Achilles heel.<\/p>\n

Mr. Putin knows it and is cagily pitting his NATO antagonists against each other.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first hairline fracture in NATO\u2019s response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine was the decision not to offer the besieged nation membership in the western alliance. The reason is elementary: under the NATO treaty\u2019s Article 5, \u201ccollective defence means that an attack against one Ally is considered as an attack against all Allies.<\/strong>\u201d Thus, if the Russian invasion is still occurring during Ukraine\u2019s ascension into the NATO alliance, its other members would be considered at war with Russia. Little wonder NATO prefers to continue to collectively defend Ukraine in a proxy war against Russia rather than issuing a catastrophic collective declaration that the allied nations are being attacked by and in a state of war with Russia.<\/p>\n

Not wanting to declare World War III, NATO is less than enthralled with Ukraine\u2019s request for membership<\/strong>. As the Kyiv Post<\/em><\/a> headline reports, \u201csome in the West have asked President Zelensky not to pressure individual allies to support a definitive, prescribed timetable for Ukrainian accession.\u201d<\/p>\n

In NATO\u2019s membership, the \u201csome\u201d would be the U.S. and Germany:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States and Germany are urging President Volodymyr Zelensky not to demand the \u2018impossible\u2019 \u2013 a clear timeframe for Ukraine\u2019s acceptance into NATO at the Alliance\u2019s summit, the British newspaper The Telegraph<\/em><\/a> reported on May 28, citing its own sources.<\/p>\n

Of course, where there are \u201csome,\u201d there are \u201csome others.\u201d Per the Kyiv Post<\/em>: \u201cSeveral member countries, including Estonia, the UK, Poland, Canada, Lithuania, and France, are advocating for increased support for Kyiv, potentially extending into Ukrainian territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a military and political alliance where there are \u201csome\u201d and there are \u201csome others,\u201d the inevitable occurs: \u201cHowever, according to [The Telegraph<\/em>\u2019s] sources, before the NATO summit in Vilnius in July 2023, countries that support Ukraine\u2019s accession to the alliance put strong pressure on other members on this issue, which led to a split in the military bloc<\/em>.\u201d [Italics, mine.]<\/p>\n

On cue, up slithers Mr. Putin to ratchet up the pressure on this hairline fracture in the NATO alliance: \u201cRussian President Vladimir Putin said that Kyiv\u2019s accession to the Alliance would threaten Moscow and not increase Ukraine\u2019s security, as it would create \u2018additional tension in the international arena.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Why, again, is NATO wary of Ukraine joining the alliance?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the NATO summit in Washington, which will be held from July 9 to 11, Ukraine will not be offered anything that would allow the country to move forward on the path to membership because of fears that the alliance could be drawn into a war with Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

As both a military and political organization, NATO was able to diplomatically paper over the dispute and place in abeyance an ultimate determination regarding Ukraine\u2019s membership.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Telegraph<\/em><\/a> <\/em>writes that at the NATO summit in Washington, D.C., alliance leaders will offer Ukraine what is now being called a \u2018bridge\u2019 or \u2018path\u2019 to membership to demonstrate support for the process. The support package being discussed now will emphasize \u2018Ukraine\u2019s ability to choose its own future\u2019 and demonstrate that the \u2018path to membership is getting shorter\u2026.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While temporarily papering over this hairline fracture in NATO\u2019s alliance, what is not getting shorter but is widening is another fissure over Ukraine, one that is even more pressing and dangerous: Ukraine\u2019s use of NATO weapons on enemy targets in Russia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We will explore this issue next week in the second and final part of our series on NATO\u2019s divisive debates over Ukraine.<\/p>\n

An American Greatness <\/em>contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) served Michigan\u2019s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012, and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars; and a Monday co-host of the \u201cJohn Batchelor Radio Show,\u201d among sundry media appearances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nThu, 06\/06\/2024 – 05:00<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/natos-hairline-fissures-part-1-ukraine-membership<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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