How NATO Lost Its Way

Historical Events Military What He Said 64 Comments

Peter Hitchens;

In the 1980s, I sometimes thought I was the only university-educated person I knew who thought deterrence was a good idea and NATO a good thing. Nowadays, it is all the other way round. I am one of the few educated people I know who thinks that the West bears some blame for the appalling conflict raging in Ukraine, though I can name a string of diplomats and academics, from George Kennan and Henry Kissinger to Yegor Gaidar and Noam Chomsky, who have long warned that NATO expansion was a terrible mistake, certain to strengthen the worst elements in Moscow. I have pursued a lone heresy of wondering why NATO even survived the end of its enemies, the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. Do we still maintain alliances against Austria-Hungary or the Ottomans? I can find no trace of them. Perhaps, overlooked in some elegant Paris street and living off ancient funds, elderly, learned men still occupy these joyous sinecures, hoping that they will not be found out.

But the political inheritors of the anti-cruise campaigners are today all hot for NATO, which I am sure they would have despised in the old days when it preserved the freedom of Western Europe through masterly inaction. These enthusiasts, for instance, desire to impose no-fly zones on Ukraine, a policy guaranteed to spread bloody war even further over the continent of Europe. The successors of the left-wing academics who once apologized for the USSR are now severe enemies of non-Communist Russia. The herbivores of 1982 are the warmongers of 2022.

How did this happen?

64 Replies to “How NATO Lost Its Way”

  1. Russia has proven that NATO is still relevant. This whole “We aggravated Russia by expanding NATO east” narrative is pure BS. If you believe that, what other Kremlin propaganda do you believe?

    1. “We aggravated Russia by expanding NATO east” narrative is pure BS in the way “Hunter Biden’s laptop” was pure Russian disinformation.

      1. Mmmhhmmm except one is being twisted as a pretext to war. Russia is to blame here, nobody else. I suppose you believe the “biolabs” narrative too? Or that Russia is defending ethnic Russians in the east? Meanwhile.their cities are being leveled. Or how about the Mariupol hospital? First Russia claimed they did nothing in the area and it was a false flag, then mere hours later Lavrov stated the hospital was empty and the Azov were I there so they bombed it. Can’t even keep their propaganda straight.

        Not only are you on the wrong side of history, but the losing side too.

          1. No doubt they exist. The problem is the Russian propaganda that they should not. Almost every country has some sort of biolabs. They are not illegal. Russias belligerence further justifies their existence. Russia has used more biological and chemical weapons in the past 30 years than all other countries. Combined.

            There’s no evidence of a biological weapons program which is the narrative Russia is trying to push. Their UN presentation was a complete dud.

          2. Every country SHOULD have biolabs … however NO country should allow foreign interference in those labs. Foreign meddling … by a crack-head, whore-mongering, son of a U.S. VP

        3. Hey genius … every war is started by a pretext. Every. single. one.

          Just so happens that THIS pretext is as REAL as Hunter’s hard drive. A drive that’s been cloned 1,000x by now … thus EVERYONE has a copy to see. No hiding from reality anymore for the Bidinh cabal.

        4. If you try to stand back and look at this mess somewhat neutrally, there are three reasons for the Russian invasion:

          1) As you mention, the ethnic Russians, who have been discriminated against and attacked for several years. Their language is banned, their children are taught (forced to learn) Ukranian, newspapers and lastly TV stations in the Russian language closed down, and random rocket attacks on anyone speaking out.

          2) Sebastopol. The home of the Russian Black sea/Mediterranean fleet. This is why Crimea is so important to Russia. It is a vital strategic interest. Without it, they lose a lot of influence in those areas, but more importantly leave the Southern belly of Russia exposed – to the area with the world’s largest concentration of rabid Islamist fundamentalists.

          3) Ukraine making noises about wanting to join the EU and NATO. Russia has always tried to keep buffer states between itself and the NATO countries. Having one on its border and threatening access to, and the land upon which Sebastopol is built is just not acceptable. It wouldn’t be to anyone. Then bumbling Joe comes along and starts prattling about maybe NATO membership might be possible…

          The final straw was Joe Biden. But the underlying pressure was already enormous, and Zelensky was just trying to exploit it.

          1. Philip
            This whole war was orchestrated by the WHITE HOUSE/CIA, just as Lybia , Egypt, and Syria were. But the like of allan/unDork are too stupid to grasp that

          2. Russia isn’t a victim here.

            For centuries, Russia has been exerting its entire self on everyone around it.

            Since when were Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, the Baltic states or the outlying islands near Japan Russian from the very beginning?

            Stalin exiled people all over the place. Now, these people think that Estonia is actually Russian.

            Whatever faults Ukraine may have, Russia has them in spades, as well.

          3. Regarding 1. Everything russian should be banned. Russians in Ukraine are remnants of occupation. They are a majority in some regions as result of ethnic cleansing and forced resettlements. Russian language and any expressions or russianism should be banned in Ukraine, Georgia, Baltics etc. They should not be tolerated anymore than swastikas should be tolerated in Israel. Russians living in those countries have a chance to join a superior culture and abandon the cespit that is russia. If they decline there is no reason not to deport them. Indeed, countries formerly occupied by russia have been remarkably civil in their treatment of russians. In case of Georgians and Ukrainians it was clearly to their peril.

            Regarding 2 and 3. This is the same argument. Those are not different points. It is again a western way of looking at things. Russia big, russia powerful, russia strategic interest, those smelly little people in Eastern Europe better fall in line and stop being inconvenient. No, not again, not without genocide that would make 20th century blush. That is one constant that is understood from Estonia to Georgia.

          4. 1) Totally fabricated. This is Russian propaganda being pushed to justify the war to the Russian people. Russia has fed the conflict in the east. They want it to happen. If they actually wanted to protect Russian speaking Ukrainians in the east, why did they nix any peacekeeping missions? Why are they leveling Russian speaking cities? They’re doing the same thing they did in South Ossetia, Crimea, Transistria,etc. Hitler did the same thing in Sudetenland. Russia DOES NOT CARE about Russian speaking Ukrainians. Why do the Russian speaking Ukrainians want Russia to leave?

            2) They had a 25 year lease on the Port. Having a strategic interest in something doesn’t give you the green light to invade. That’s ridiculous.

            3) Again, Ukraine is its own country. Russia cannot dictate if Ukraine joins a defensive alliance. Russia sure is proving Ukraine should join NATO.

      2. That’s a nice bit of whataboutism, there, Kate. But I’m afraid Hunter’s laptop doesn’t alter the fact that Eastern European nations really didn’t want to be under the kosh of Russia again, and requested to join NATO (wise choice, it turns out). And the corruption of President* Biden is deffo for real, but so is the fact that there were hardly any wider NATO forces in those Eastern European nations until Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

        1. It’s not “whataboutism” to remind Allen that we’re told it’s “Kremlin propaganda” every time the mainstream narrative is questioned.

          Just as I’m going to remind you that “That’s whataboutism” is the lazy go-to retort of the year and you should probably strive to better.

          1. But what if it is? Biolabs, Russian language being banned, ethnic Russians being targeted, Neonazis taking over the Ukrainian government, etc

            All Kremlin propaganda that they have pushed for a while now. Some longer than others. That’s how Russian propaganda works. They also like accusing the other side of the very same crimes they are committing or about to commit.

          2. Just as I’m going to remind you that “That’s whataboutism” is the lazy go-to retort of the year and you should probably strive to better.

            Maybe I should but still, I’m not the one who started talking about Hunter Biden’s laptop in your thread about NATO.

          3. Laptop? Only for how it certifies US meddling in Ukraine-Russia affairs. Completely relevant to the discussion.

            Reminder: Crackhead Has Hunter is the SON of a sitting VP and Pres.
            What could be more relevant than that!?

      3. Another ignorant western article in the long line of articles that gives no agency to Eastern Europe. And that says that the hundred or so millions of Eastern European should just learn to love the russian boot on their necks, because it would be more convenient in the salons of Berlin, Rome and Paris.

        Never again.

        1. I don’t care if anyone speaks Russian in their homes, and neither should you. They must speak the language of the majority as anyone else is expected to.

          And Russia, as a proper noun, has to be capitalised. If you have a problem with grammar, that’s on you.

          1. It is not about language spoken at homes, it is about cultural expression outside of homes and it is about dual citizenship.

            The not capitalizing russian is an insult. It is more obvious in some Slavic cultures, but russians understand it too. I will continue doing that. Note, I do capitalize Siberian and Mongol.

    2. 2015 ; ” Russia hacked the DNC server!” = turned out the media lied about that.

      2016 ; “Russia and Trump colluded!” = turned out the media lied about that.

      2022 ; “There is no Hunter laptop it is all Russia disinformation!” = turns out the media lied about that.

      The ones spreading disinformation are the media , not Russia.

      1. Who hacked the server?

        There’s no evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia, but there’s plenty of evidence that Russia ran an elaborate interference campaign as spelled out in the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report.

        The media didn’t run a story where a laptop was obtained under suspicious circumstances and timing? Well by God, you got me there.

        1. @Allan S – Yea the “dossier” was proven a forgery, but you Hillary Clinton lovers will continue to push the crazy narrative.

        2. An elaborate interference campaign? All I’ve EVER read about it was HER claim of Macedonian Server Farms … and some minor advertising purchases on Facquebook. Try using specifics … not DNC Soviet-styled sloganeering.

          PS … I still LAUGH silently when I think of Robert Mueller sitting before The Committee … stumbling and bumbling … saying absolutely nothing of any veracity or import. With not even a wisp of information that connected PDJT to anything “Russian”

          And after that rubbish all fell apart? The Dem’s. and the NWO needed COVID … badly. Needed their foreign bio lab to take out Trump and the American electorate … post haste. And Fauxci was just the “man” to do it

        3. alla
          Seth Rich and his brother down loaded onto a thumb drive, there was NO hack. The down load speed was way to hi for a hack. You are stupid on so many levels, on so many topics. You should learn to SYFU, and get a mental evaluation!

        4. Allan S,

          who told you it was Russian disinformation?

          I know ; The same media who lie everyday and have lied about Russia many times before.

          So why do you think the media are telling the truth this time?

          1. Disinformation? What are you quoting here. I went back to what you replied to and don’t see anything regarding disinformation.

          2. I cannot reply to Allan S comment below , so I am doing it here

            he asks where he said it was all Russian disinformation as if I had pulled that out my 4ss

            well the first comment on this entire page is by Allan S and the comment is

            […]… If you believe that, what other Kremlin propaganda do you believe? …[…]

            propaganda, disinformation same difference.

            So how do you know Russia is lying?
            Did the main stream media tell you that?
            How do you know the same media who is caught lying everyday is not lying about Russia?

      1. Your statement is part of the problem. When one side is completely fabricated as a means to discredit the other side, there’s no middle ground. Russia is famous for this.

  2. Note how NATO leaders, to a man, imported Muslim immigrants by the boatload, and introduced hate-speech laws to make it illegal to criticize this policy. Heck, they even threw Brigitte Bardot in jail. Note how NATO took out Ghadaffi resulting in the “refugee” from Africa floodgates being thrown wide. Note how all NATO leaders were happy to use the WuFlu as a pretext to strip their own people of their fundamental rights.
    NATO and it’s leaders are a much bigger threat to the west than China and Russia combined.

  3. “A very cunning British diplomat once explained to me that the US Senate would never have ratified the NATO Treaty if it had been a genuine obligation.”

    Well, yes. Because there were still men in the US Senate in those days that realized that Russia was not the enemy.

    Communism and national socialism had both been pet projects of the Money Trusts of New York and London—the same pack of parasites that had saddled the United States with a Negro problem.

    Russians and Americans who work for a living and believe in God will only truly know peace, prosperity and liberty when the Money Trust is destroyed.

    1. . . . Money Trusts of New York . . .

      You know, I think I’ve heard another word used for that.

  4. 5.3 million refused altogether.
    I’m sure the Turd has fantasies about boxcars and ovens because of that.
    …with camps sporting logos like “The Vaccine Will Set You Free”

  5. Welcome to Bizarro World where everything is the opposite of the real world. I don’t know how leftists manage to not get vertigo changing their views so abruptly. They also go gaga over people like Nostradamus, for instance, but ignore Orwell who was a much more accurate prophet.

    1. You’ve described all the “stand with Ukraine” useful idiots to a ‘T.’ February 21: “we need to purge Ukraine of its pernicious Nazi influence.” February 22: “Putin is Hitler and must be eliminated!”

  6. […] The recent financial sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine are threatening to weaken the dominance of the U.S. petrodollar as the world currency, said First Deputy Managing Director Gita Gopinath of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to The Financial Times.

    The sanctions may result in a more fragmented international monetary system, warned Gopinath.[…]

    from Epochnews

  7. Russia just isn’t communist enough for our hard left U.S. and European warmongers. Putin is a fly in their globalist schemes.
    Be interesting to see the spin from U.S. foreign policy wonks once China gets serious about Taiwan.
    Watch for the “Well, it was really theirs anyways” meme.

  8. Well, I subscribe to the theory that Putin is in expansion mode not so much because he wants to pushback against a NATO threat, but rather, because he knows the present Western leadership is nothing but Chamberlins and chamberpots.

    1. Weakness invites conflict but so does provocation. To me it would seem, the wealth and one billion people of the EU (including nuclear armed UK and France) should mean they can easily defend themselves and have nothing to fear from Russia with a crappy economy and 150 million people. But then how would the military industrial complex make billions for its leaders? By the way, remember when the left hated the MIC?

  9. Allan S., I find Putin more credible than Zelensky. Or Biden, or Trudeau, or Macron, or…

    And I believe NOTHING from the MSM.

    1. One only need watch the leaders of eastern European countries to discern the difference between cultures.
      The west elects vain metrosexual progressives to represent them while the diplomats of eastern Europe look like they’d do well in a physical disagreement.
      One progects strength, one doesn’t.
      Like him or hate him, Putin doesn’t believe that Russia is a post nationalist state and unlike the Ukrainian regime, has not allowed the west to manipulate events in Russia.
      Ukraine and Russia started off with the same resources, more or less, and look at Russia’s economy and compare it to Ukraine.
      Ukraine decended into poverty because of the west, not Russia.

  10. NATO was created to keep Germany down, and American interests in. PERIOD. After 1991, with no visible threat, no enemy, the only country pushing for NATO was the Americans. The US has a large part of their economy dedicated to supplying the tools of war.
    The more instability and fear, the greater the arms sales. The rest of their economy uses this entry point for their global sales.
    This time though, it looks like they punched themselves in the face with trying to sanction a country that is totally intertwined with the global economy. The only ones who will suffer will be their own citizens.
    As for are own feckless leaders, they love it. Gas driven inflation means an entry point for their Green Agenda, which they see as non competitive with low fossil fuel prices.
    Only the idiots dont realize there is no viable replacement for fossil fuels on the horizon for a country as cold and large as Canada.
    It will only serve to make our economy weak, which will give rise to European economies. Like a reverse WW2, except this time we destroy ourselves, and they profit from assisting us.

  11. I have pursued a lone heresy of wondering why NATO even survived the end of its enemies, the USSR and the Warsaw Pact. Do we still maintain alliances against Austria-Hungary or the Ottomans?

    Oh, the studied, brow-furrowed, world-weary nuance of it all. Too far up his own pompous arse to remember that neither the Austro-Hungarians nor the Ottomans retained vast armies, 6000 nukes and a beligerent attitude.

    Proving, once again, that the wrong brother died.

      1. To be clear, Hitchen’s notion is that once the USSR and Warsaw Pact went away, the reason for NATO went away. I’m saying that post-Soviet Russia retaining massive armies, 6000 nukes and a beligerent attitude was good reason to keep NATO.

        1. Yes that is his argument. It is more precise than mine. Mine is more general. It does not matter who is in charge of the Siberian horde, Tsar, Commies, Pootin. It is the horde that remains a threat. Also to be in charge of the horde you need to posses certain traits, you have to be ruthless and expansionist, like Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Whore, Stalin and Pootin. All worshiped to this day by the horde at home.

    2. I’m thinking that any decision desperate enough to deploy nukes would be hastened by NATO rather than be deterred by it. NATO has kept Europe from properly building their own defenses in the same way that NORAD has allowed Canada to be the bumbling deadbeat “partner” of the US.

  12. Russia and Ukraine both are populated with socially conservative slavic peoples. The Soros/WEF/Globalist vision is that they both eventually will be assimilated into a socially progressive, centrally planned society, part of the climate change solution and so on, starting with Ukraine and moving on to Russia. Regime change in 2014 in Ukraine was a step towards that objective. I think they are planning for the same thing in the case of Russia. But first they need to manipulate the public into strong support for the “EUization”/”NATOization” of Ukraine. That started with false claims of Russian lawyers tortured to death (Magnitsky), Novichok poisoning (Skripals and Navalny), Russian bounties on US troops in Afghanistan, Russians deliberately bombing hospitals in Syria, and Russians meddling in the 2020 election.

    Now we’re onto the next moral panic, the invasion of Ukraine. The media/political campaign amplifying this panic has been extremely successful in aligning the left and right towards a common goal, defeat of Russia. I can see why the progressive left support the globalist vision without thinking about it too much. What I can’t understand how the conservative right ended up cheering so passionately for globalist objectives.

    I just hope the war ends quickly for the sake of civilians in Ukraine, and that Ukrainians come to their senses about the desirability of joining the EU. I think the war will end quickly once the DPR/LPR/Russians take the rest of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.

  13. And WWII was started by a company of Polish troops attacking an obscure German border post. And the American build up in Vietnam was caused by a North Vietnamese attack in the Gulf of Tonkin. And weapons of mass destruction??? I believe any old bullshit.

  14. Excellent piece by Christopher’s smarter brother Peter Hitchens.
    Peter’s account of the lefty switcheroo from NATO hater to noble NATO lover has an analogue today with the new lefty love of BIG PHARMA which at one time was one of their fave F-less curses.

  15. Again, Colonialista, your childish refusal to follow grammar is on you.

    Leftist, really.

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