NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin pose with NATO Defence ministers for a family picture on the second day of a meeting at the NATO headquarter in Brussels, Belgium Feb, 15, 2023. (Shutterstock/Alexandros Michailidis)
Responsible Statecraft: Will upcoming NATO summit launch forever war in Europe?
Pressure is mounting to make some sort of formal declaration over Ukraine’s membership at meetings in Vilnius next month.
An article in the New York Times on Wednesday claimed that pressure is building on Biden to announce a timetable for Ukrainian membership in NATO at its Vilnius Summit next month.
Supposedly Biden is “isolated” among NATO allies in his reluctance to do so, even though that claim is contradicted by the story’s own last paragraph (the one that Noam Chomsky once quipped should be read first), which acknowledges that “others argue more quietly” that NATO membership “could give Mr. Putin more incentive to continue the war, or to escalate it.”
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WNU Editor: I agree with this statement from the above post .... since Moscow has already declared NATO membership for Ukraine to be completely unacceptable and an existential threat — the prevention of which is one of its chief war aims — a Vilnius Declaration that Ukraine will join NATO when the war ends will effectively ensure that the war goes on forever.
Sighhh .... both sides are dug in, and there is no willingness to compromise.
My biggest fear is that a major incident will occur that will give the excuse that NATO is looking for to directly intervene in the war. Officials in Poland and the Baltic states are already talking about deploying military personnel to guard the Ukraine - Belarus border. And then there is winter. If there is a cold winter the energy shock that will be felt in Europe is going to be profound, and the pressure that will be put on European governments to do something may lead us to that pathway of a major NATO - Russia war.
I have learned in life that desperate people do desperate things. I know in Ukraine the feeling of desperation is now deep, and they are scrambling for a way to get NATO directly involved. But what happens if NATO or Moscow (or both) start to feel desperate? You tell me.
WNU proprietor, you can expect the worse. Below is a transcript from a diary I made of a German Lt. Brand of the 466th infantry regiment in the Donbass region on July 3rd, 1943. Things are not going well. He is unhappy because they have not brought an offensive against the Russians in six months, the Russians are causing decimating casualties to the Germans, and he is learning about the destruction of German cities by the allied air forces.
ReplyDeleteLt. Brand;
“At every time I am horribly angry thinking of the results we have achieved in the fourth year of the war. I have no doubt a lot of this would have been avoided if our leadership and men had not been so foolish and arrogant. It makes me feel angry when I think of all the foolish statements that were made over the last several years. Our own propaganda has us caught in its trap. And this despite such magnificent victories, such valiant heroism and sacrifice….......While the ideas, wishes and beginnings were all good, there was a German Spring rising up over all Europe. But the carrying out of plans more and more ended up in the hands of idiots and bureaucrats. The mediocracy grew to full bloom and consequently failed to tolerate any kind of criticism. Now it stands on the road of collapse and does not know what to do. The great idea has been affected by this and is slowly dying. Now there will be a final battle for the German dream, for the dream of a good thousand years.”
What is that people say now, Wash rinse repeat. Governments yuck.
🤔 👍
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