Is NATO totally pointless?

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  • OutOfBreath
    OutOfBreath Posts: 1,804
    darkcrow wrote:
    I ask this becuase almost every week I read/hear/watch news reports on how the British, Americans and Canadians are fighting in Afghanistan and no one else is. This is dispite shortly after 9/11 NATO vowed to go into the country and not leave until the job is done. I have also read that the other NATO forces that are in the country are in quite safe areas doing very little.
    What is the point of NATO if it doesnt do what it says. I am no arguing the rights and wrongs of the conflict... just the treaty organisation that said it'd do something.

    Nato is indeed heavily involved in Afghanistan. I think the numbers for most nations are higher than the feb 05 numbers to be honest. So the answer to your question to where NATO is, the answer is "right there". Norway is contributing as many soldiers as we ever have for foreign operations, and have one of the highest soldier pr capita contributions.

    But nowadays the NATO commanders in Afghanistan wants more troops and/or less restrictions on those there. But seeing as most of the NATO-nations have a very sceptic public about these things, and anti-war sentiments being strong, they are stuck between a rock and a hard place doing something about it. I remember the opposition raised a big hubbub about sending more troops, which our government declined, talking about how dangerous it was letting down our allies, blabla. When none of the other nations actually raised their numbers. Gotta love political partisanship. Norway is as deep in as we ever have been in a foreign mission at least.

    As for the use of NATO, I dunno. Furthering european and american interests I guess. And Cosmo, NATO came first, the Warzaw pact after as the response, but correctly it was formed in fear of soviet aggression. NATOs role has expired, but instead of just shutting down, they started trying to find a new mission for it. So it's not so much a defense alliance anymore, as it is an offensive alliance attacking and securing other nations according to western interests. For countries like Norway, it's about snuggling up to the US.

    I dont know how much I really like NATO as it is now. Up to the soviet fall, it's mission and purpose was clear and necessary. Now, it's neither.

    Peace
    Dan
    "YOU [humans] NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN'T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?" - Death

    "Every judgment teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous. Knowledge is an unending adventure at the edge of uncertainty." - Frank Herbert, Dune, 1965

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