RIP, NATO!

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is effectively dead.

Conceived to prevent further Soviet expansion in Europe and bankrolled largely by the United States, it was merely a paper tiger and rarely effective anywhere.

It took NATO a good long time to counter Serbia's genocide against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo at the turn of the 21st century, while it ignored Serbia's similar attempts at genocide against Muslims in Bosnia Herzegovina (ethnic cleansing) just a few years earlier.

Go figure.

One can argue that neither case involved states or territories that were part of NATO, yet NATO ignored the one case but involved itself in the second.

Which, quite frankly, could provide NATO with an excuse to intervene in Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.

If they had the balls to.

Which they don't.

Then, after 9-11 in the US, then President George W. Bush called upon NATO to make war against the terrorists based in Afghanistan who perpetrated that outrage.

The result was a 20 years' war in Afghanistan that didn't end the power of the terrorists but DID lead to our ignominious and hurried departure from there in 2021.

In short, NATO and the US were defeated.

When the Soviet Union finally collapsed in the 1990s, the newly independent states that comprised its western fringe, the Baltic States and the members of the now-defunct Warsaw Pact, promptly sought admission to NATO to be protected against a reinvigorated "democratic" Russia.

They all also sought admission to the European Union as added insurance for their newly independent status, while whining about their "national sovereignty<' which they hadn't had while contained within the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, both NATO and the European Union consist of squabbling nations of various sizes, economies, ethnicities and goals, jealous of each other, none of whom wish to be subordinated for a greater good.

There is no European Army, because NATO is supposed to take the place of one.

US President Donald Trump is actually getting tired of NATO, has complained that the other states are not pulling their financial weight in NATO (true enough) and keeps hinting that he might withdraw from the organization.

Worse still is that there is no coordination among the member states regarding military personnel, war materiel and planning, making the recent hurried activity among some of the European members look like the antics of the Keystone Kops!

They lack unity of purpose.

And conviction.

Which makes it rather odd that Ukraine wants to join both organizations and Russia's Putin is absolutely opposed to it.

That is strange, because Putin is the slickest operator of all the European political leaders.

There must be some peculiar qualities to those organizations that befuddle men's minds.

He has seen how ineffective the European Union has been in its attempts to bring him to heel.

They have been a thorn in Putin's side, to be sure, but not fatal.

As for NATO, two days ago he launched 19 drones into Polish territory.

Poland is a member of NATO and is pretending to be a Great Power again.

Like they did in 1939!

Poland got angry and called for NATO to investigate the matter, citing article four of the NATO charter.

Article five calls for NATO allies to join in protecting a member from outside attack.

Poland didn't go as far as that.

NATO promptly condemned Russia's action and did...nothing.

Putin's little game with Poland proved what he already suspected: The EU and NATO are too frightened to go to war with him.

Or even to anger him too much

And without the US backing any NATO attempts to militarily chastise Russia, he knows he has nothing to fear from them.

So, Putin and Belarus are engaging in joint military maneuvers in Belarus to throw a little scare into the EU an NATO.

Belarus neighbors Poland and Putin put that state into Russia's pocket years go.

That is the same fate Putin has in store for Ukraine.

If NATO or the EU don't like it, well, tant pis to them.

NATO is dead.