When NATO was first created late in the Forties in the aftermath of World War II, it made sense. The Soviet Union was an aggressive global power and much of Western Europe lay in ruins. However, today Russia is a second rate power, and that might be a generous assessment, and Western Europe is one of the more prosperous areas around the globe. The Europeans could easily provide for their own defense but they lack the will to do so. The United States protection under NATO became a crutch eagerly embraced by the European members. So long as there were no major wars, the status rumbled along, decade after decade, with the West European militaries atrophying, becoming weaker in most cases than the National Guards of many US States. The Ukraine War has revealed both the weakness of the other members of NATO and their belief that they have a right to have the US at their beck and call. Time to rectify this.
Thought For The Day
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Europe’s principal problem is the abiding fertility deficit. You need young men to carry those rifles, and you have too few of them.
Poland is the exception…to the military spending, not the decline in birthrates.
I read from a combox commentator at The American Spectator, a fine fellow I had the opportunity to meet some years ago, that the woke virus has hit Poland, most notably young women. Not good.
I saw an article recently that said that Poland is going to pursue Nuclear weapons. When you’re next to the Russian bear, It’s good to have that deterrence. Unfortunately Clinton encouraged Ukrainians to hand their nukes over to the Russians. Not that I’m sure I trust them anymore than the Russians.
How about this for a doctrine? We spend money on the United States. We keep up the biggest military in the world. If you take out a building, we take out a city.If you hit us in a city, we take out a whole province. And oh yeah. Don’t mess with our boats. We’re prepared to have free trade with you but not unfair trade. Leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone. And all you socialists near the Russian bear and in Canada, You get to take care of yourself.
Penguins Fan wrote in part, “…the woke virus has hit Poland, most notably young women. Not good.” I have a young friend (well, half my age actually) who is an engineer in the Comisiei NaÈ›ionale pentru Controlul Activităților Nucleare (National Commission for Nuclear Activities Control) in Romania. She is a very competent and helpful engineer. Many times I have asked her to explain various things about Romanian nuclear regulations, and she happily did so within a day or two, providing translated text. But she is completely opposed to Calin Georgescu (recall that VP Vance mentioned him at his meeting in Europe a few weeks ago) and the majority of Romanians who voted for him as President. She believes whole heartedly that he is a fascist and that Russian election interfence is the reason that he is ahead in the polls. That he was recently arrested on dubious charges (at best) and is now prohibited from running any further as candidate in the Romanian elections for Presidency meets with her whole hearted approval. She and those like her don’t see that democracy can never be saved by silencing and imprisoning the opposition. And yes, she is Catholic and is one of the smartest people whom I know professionally. But apparently she has completely embraced the woke paradigm. Or maybe I am wrong and she is motivated by fears of a return to the Soviet days when Russia dominated everything in Romania.
Folks, I have a great fondness for this woman, a fellow nuclear energy professional albeit in another country. If she asked me for help in understanding something in my field of expertise, then I would bend over backwards to help her. Frankly, I just don’t know what is causing this insanity because at heart she is a good person but deceived and deluded by news media and government propaganda.
LQC, we tend, I fear, to underestimate the power of the Father of Lies in matters such as this. We talk and pray about an Enemy who “has seduced the whole world”, in the words of Pope Leo XIII, among others, yet we often fail to “go there” when the behavior of our fellow men beggars understanding. Maybe it just seems like too simple an explanation, but simple doesn’t necessarily mean simplistic.
LQC, she believes the propaganda but doesn’t know it. Many smart people, who know a great deal in their chosen fields, often know little about other fields of knowledge but are confident that they do have that knowledge.
I remember the movie Da Vinci Code (2006). Lots of people thought it was true. Art experts thought the art details were wrong but the historical background was true. Historians thought the history was wrong but the art details were correct, and so on with other fields in the movie.
Belief in the covid “plague”, it’s cause, it’s prevention, etc., is another example where so many people were certain in their incorrect knowledge, easily rejecting our knowledge known for viruses from the “before covid times”.
But she is completely opposed to Calin Georgescu (recall that VP Vance mentioned him at his meeting in Europe a few weeks ago) and the majority of Romanians who voted for him as President.
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He won a plurality in the first round of an election, all of 23% of the vote. It was the runoff election which was cancelled.
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He’s been dealt with shamefully by various institutions. That does not establish his perspicacity. It’s possible media outlets have been attributing to him things he has not said. It’s also possible he actually said those things. He comes off as a weird crank at best, a Russian stooge at worst.
Art Deco, you may be correct. I know next to nothing about Calin Georgescu. But I think that the people of Romania should have as President the person for whom a majority vote. Maybe the Romanians need to learn the lesson of 1st Samuel chapter 8 the hard way. I just don’t know, Art. 😞
“If you take out a building, we take out a city.If you hit us in a city, we take out a whole province.”
That’s pretty severe and would be liable to escalating dangerously VERY quickly. More workable would be this: You hit a building, we nail your nearest major downtown area at night. You nail a city, we hit every industrial area and downtown area of two of your cities. Again at night. We still escalate and give some dramatic pain if someone decides to be stupid. We don’t risk immediately escalating to World War III because some tin pot tyrant decides to rattle his sword.