Sarah Palin raised some eyebrows when she indicated in the Charlie Gibson interview that she favored extending NATO membership to Georgia and Ukraine, and that an attack on either could lead to a NATO troop commitment to defend either country from a Russian attack under Article 5.
Laying aside the fact that the Liberals excoriated her for correctly pointing out the consequences of NATO membership, while they excoriated her for needing clarification on the gotcha "Bush Doctrine" question, today, the US is suggesting a NATO Rapid Reaction Force be established to handle these contingencies.
You see, the Eastern European countries, who know a thing or two about Russian aggression, are not so certain that NATO is really serious about their military commitment to them. I'd say judging by the woeful performance and downright wussiness of NATO nations in Afghanistan, in response to a real Article 5, these countries should be worried whether NATO would actually come to their defense, or would they only have the two strongest members of NATO as allies, the US and the UK (and, if I were them, I'd be very, very, very worried about the US commitment with Obama at the helm).
But, wait, doesn't NATO already have a NATO Reaction Force, a concept that was first realized in 2002 and completely put into place in 2006.
What's Gates talking about?
end..
No comments:
Post a Comment