Is Nato A Force For Good?

[Guest sibon]

7 hours ago, Anna B said:

Norm Chomsky. One of the greatest minds of the 21st century and highly respected. Worth listening to.

I see.

 

So Norm is related to Noam?

Or am I missing something?

 

@cgksheff Totally agree.

[hauxwell]

The way the world is at the moment I’m going to say NATO is a force for good.  The UK should stay a member of the organisation.

Am I right in thinking that during Donald Trumps election campaign he wanted America to leave NATO?  

 

[hauxwell]

Just now, West 77 said:

I believe Donald Trump wanted the European members of NATO to contribute more money to the budget.  From what I understand the UK is the only European member that has honoured the agreement to contribute 2% of GDP to the budget.  Donald Trump was correct in calling out the European NATO members.

Yes I can remember him saying that other NATO members needed to contribute more money.  

[crazyhorse]

5 hours ago, cgksheff said:

Without clicking on any link here, I choose to deplore the increasing fashion of choosing videos to try and put over an opinion, rather than a rational explanation.

I agree.

Let a proxy argue your case for you...so you don't have to have the pain of introspection.

What happened to reasoned debate?

I hate social media.

[Guest]

Is Nato A Force For Good?

Mainly yes.

At least it's the lesser of 2 evils.

Without it, we cannot counter the the threat from mad men such as Putin.

With North Korea to think about too, it would be stupid not to keep Nato in good shape and we have really overdone the stupidity in recent years.

Trump was right to insist that Europe paid it's way in Nato.  The only correct decision he ever made.

 

 

[nightrider]

2 hours ago, West 77 said:

NATO allegedly existed to counter the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact went away 30 years ago so why does NATO still exist?  Why has NATO extended right up to the Russian border?

because those countries remember Russian oppression.

 

Now they see what is happening in Ukraine and those that joined NATO see they made the right choice.

 

No-one forced them to join,  they requested it. If Russians would behave in a civilised way it would not be needed. We can see going all the way back the Chechen wars in the 90's/2000's the way they treat others.

[Guest]

Russians think that they can force people to be friends by pointing guns at them instead of being  good friends in return.

I honestly think that the Russian people in general are kind and caring but are misinformed and brainwashed by the state.

We have also made big mistakes in the past and not been a good advert for the caring qualities of the human race.

Humanity will learn when it's too late in the same way as we will with climate change.

When we talk about war crimes, include Blair in the conversation.

[Waldo]

1 hour ago, Organgrinder said:

Russians think that they can force people to be friends by pointing guns at them instead of being  good friends in return.

I honestly think that the Russian people in general are kind and caring but are misinformed and brainwashed by the state.

We have also made big mistakes in the past and not been a good advert for the caring qualities of the human race.

Humanity will learn when it's too late in the same way as we will with climate change.

When we talk about war crimes, include Blair in the conversation.

We don’t seem to hold ourselves accountable for our own wrong-doing, yet we bitch about the wrong-doing of other’s...

 

We are almost certainly being conditioned by our own state propaganda, just like the Russians are. That said, I very much suspect Russian state media is far more biased than ours is.

 

I think you’re spot in regarding Russian people, common people don’t want war and conflict with other people around the world. It’s only those in power who want that.

 

I'd like to see a world where people from all countries are more directly connected, able to communicate and share information with each other, with no agents of government feeding them a distorted view of the world.

[spilldig]

4 hours ago, West 77 said:

I believe Donald Trump wanted the European members of NATO to contribute more money to the budget.  From what I understand the UK is the only European member that has honoured the agreement to contribute 2% of GDP to the budget.  Donald Trump was correct in calling out the European NATO members.

Yes and NATO did nothing to help us when Argentina invaded The Falklands.

[carosio]

6 hours ago, West 77 said:

NATO allegedly existed to counter the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact went away 30 years ago so why does NATO still exist?  Why has NATO extended right up to the Russian border?

It was formed before the Warsaw pact as a defence against Russia after WW2. After the USSR collapsed, those former states applied to join, presumably for protection from a re-surgent Russia. The nearer to the border they were the more vulnerable they would be, as recent events have proved.

 

If a state wishes to leave NATO it can do so.

 

"The Falklands War between the United Kingdom and Argentina did not result in NATO involvement because Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that collective self-defense is applicable only to attacks on member state territories north of the Tropic of Cancer. "

Edited March 3, 2022 by carosio