Gates Blasts NATO, Questions Future of Alliance

[Quantum Windbag]

Just think folks...if this was Gates or Cheney making this same announcement.

It was Gates.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Isolationism leads to wars.

No, Isolationism helps prevent getting involved in wars.

That was what they said before WWII, remember how that worked out?

 

[WillowTree]

America's military alliance with Europe -- the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades -- faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.

In his final policy speech as Pentagon chief, Gates questioned the viability of NATO, saying its members' penny-pinching and lack of political will could hasten the end of U.S. support. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed in 1949 as a

U.S.-led bulwark against Soviet aggression, but in the post-Cold War era it has struggled to find a purpose.

"Future U.S. political leaders - those for whom the Cold War was not the formative experience that it was for me - may not consider the return on America's investment in NATO worth the cost," he told a European think tank on the final day of an 11-day overseas journey.

Gates has made no secret of his frustration with NATO bureaucracy and the huge restrictions many European governments placed on their military participation in the Afghanistan war. He ruffled NATO feathers early in his tenure with a direct challenge to contribute more front-line troops that yielded few contributions.


Read more: Gates Blasts NATO, Questions Future of Alliance - FoxNews.com

This is one thing I think Obama is getting right, even if he used them as a front for his attack on Libya. NATO is an organization that gives us little, or no, return on the investment. There was a strong need for it during the Cold War, but now I do not see a reason for us to be tied to a group that primary reason for existence is in the past.

Before anyone tries to call me on Obama not saying this, if anyone believes Gates did not clear this speech with Obama before he made it I have some seaside property in Arizona I no longer need, I am willing to let it go at a very reasonable rate.

That's seems to be the gist of it. The US is expected to provide the money the equipment and to do the heavy lifting. you know what that leads to? The US is then accused of being murderous aggressors and Europe just sits there looking all angelic and everything. Yep.. Time to cut them loose.

 

[Trajan]

NATO was formed to stop the Soviets. They haven't had a relevant mission in 20 years. Most of what NATO does should be handled by the EU. Its their mess, let them handle it.

Our current threats are global and not limited to that Hemisphere. Time to develop a new global military alliance

Serbia?

 

[Sunni Man]

Isolationism leads to wars.

No, Isolationism helps prevent getting involved in wars.

That was what they said before WWII, remember how that worked out?

Roosevelt was a globalist and hated America being isolationist.

He provoked Japan with punitive embargos in hopes that they would attack us.

So that once we had declared war on Japan.

It would be easy to convince the American people do also get involved with the war in Europe.

But Hitler beat Roosevelt to the punch and declared war on the United States first

 

[Trajan]

history is circular folks....when the euro collapses and we withdraw or nato just crumbles of its own weight and apathy, back to square one.