NATO's Nemesis

July 11, 2014

Vladimir Putin upstaged NATO’s 75^th anniversary summit in Washington by bombing a children’s hospital in Kyiv, issuing an arrest warrant for Alexei Navalny’s widow, making a pact with Hungary’s treacherous Viktor Orban, and getting a big hug from India’s Prime Minister who swapped morality for cheap Russian oil. Each loathsome act underscored the need, more than ever, for the military alliance to step up and strengthen its resilience and resolve going forward. NATO was founded in 1948, because of Stalin’s brutal blockade of West Berlin, and the Organization now faces the same barbarian at its “gates”, plus others. To survive, it must go all in for Ukraine and declare its path to NATO membership “irreversible” which would remove Putin’s main incentive behind prolonging the war. It would also pit Putin directly against an unbeatable alliance. The total military budget for NATO’s 32 members is 10 times’ bigger than Russia’s military budget, notes retired US Admiral and former NATO commander James Stavridis. “Putin is the greatest salesman for NATO membership ever…he thinks he is Stalin but will end up like Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia.”