NATO a Costly Anachronism We Can No Longer Afford

“The commonest error in politics is sticking to the carcass of dead policies.”

— Lord Salisbury

It seems like everybody wants to be a member of NATO nowadays. It is understandable; everybody prefers others to die in their defense. What is not understandable is that Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “NATO never promised not to admit new members; it could not and would not.”

So why would the United States have their sons and daughters dying for the faraway countries “we barely know?”

At this juncture, it is important to remind how the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) came about. NATO was established in April 1949 to serve three objectives: deterring Soviet expansionism, preventing the revival of militarism in Europe, and encouraging European political and economic integration.

At that time, Europe was in ruins — facing a formidable threat from the Red Army and later from the forces of the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact had a combined population of 380 million and exceeded NATO more than 2-to-1 in personnel and more than 3-to-1 in tanks and armored vehicles.

Given strategic and political realities, the United States emerged as the principal guarantor of peace.

Forty years later, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Warsaw Pact disintegrated. With the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989, NATO accomplished its founder’s vision. It has defeated the mightiest military machine the world has ever known, without firing a single shot.

The 40 years contest with communism ended peacefully and 400 million people were liberated from communist slavery.

But for NATO, it was not the time for celebration — it lost an enemy and a mission. By all practical purposes, it should be disbanded. Nevertheless, it managed to survive and invent a new enemy, devise a new mission, and expand. Indeed it has increased its membership from 16 countries to 30.

The demise of the Soviet Union and subsequent disintegration of the Warsaw Pact completely altered the balance of power in Europe. Today’s Russia is a fraction of what used to be the powerful Soviet Union. It is a country of 150 million, and its GDP is about 10% of the GDP of the European Union.

Western Europe, on the other hand, has become a massive economic power with a population of 500 million and a combined GDP akin to the United States. Notwithstanding the disparity, Russia was designated as a bogeyman of Europe to ensure that the United States continues to play a vital role in the so-called “collective security.”

The grim reality of “collective security” is a collection of security guarantees extended by the United States to NATO’s other 29 countries. Just as Britain gave a war guarantee to Poland in 1939 it could not honor, and subsequently swept into the Second World War, the United States has offered to NATO partners guarantees that the U.S. cannot fulfill in most instances.

It is peculiar American blindness. If, for example, Russia occupies Estonian’s Russian-speaking city of Narva, located at the Russian border near St. Petersburg, the U.S. would be sucked into a war with nuclear Russia we did not initiate and had nothing to do with.

No matter how much we cherish the territorial integrity of tiny Estonia, it is suicidal for America to extend war guarantees to countries we cannot save and go to wars we cannot win.

The U.S. military cemeteries around Europe are a sober reminder of the costs of defending European allies, which had in the past notoriously ignored the danger and failed to preempt the impending catastrophes of two world wars.

Indeed, Western democracies accustomed to living protected by the U.S. security shield downgraded their military capabilities and directed their budgets to social spending. So Europeans can enjoy a 35-hour workweek, free medical care, generous benefits and extended vacations. In contrast, American workers have to put in 40 to 50 hours per week to support Europe’s defense.

NATO has become an expensive anachronism and should be replaced with treaties that reflect today’s realities more accurately, not those of 70 years ago.

The good thing is that, after living under the U.S. protection for 70 years, Europe has undertaken the historical journey from dependency to self-reliance, from poverty to prosperity.

The kids have grown up, and it is time for the parent to let them go. There is no longer a military necessity, nor a moral imperative, for the U.S. to protect Europe from itself or its potential adversaries.

There is a saying — “God made sheep to shear them” — and, as long as the U.S. remains in NATO, Europeans will shamelessly exploit the sheep.