NATO - Myths & Realities

You all must have heard the term NATO in news due to recent Russia-Ukraine war but what is it? May be some of you know that its military alliance of America or some sort of organization/ institution but what exactly it is?

Why just because of a country willing to join it was attacked by Russia? So much lives just for an organization? let's discover in simplest language.

Image source: Nato.int

After the world war 2 got over, or say after America threw nuclear bombs on Japan (yes the peace loving America did that) in 1945 and today Japan has the nuclear umbrella of the USA which seems like a broken umbrella now as we see the hegemony of the west is diminishing and people are standing up to their selective behavior.

After destructing the Nazi Germany and winning the war with the allies that is Great Britain, USSR and USA.

The USSR had already a lot of influence in the Europe at that time especially the eastern Europe. The influence was both military as well as ideological, USSR promotion of communism and anti democratic form of government seems a threat to America and so they took the decision to start investing money in the Europe and counter the USSR and the North Atlantic Treaty was signed on 4 April, 1949.

Look at what the NATO website say :

"It is often said that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded in response to the threat posed by the Soviet Union. This is only partially true. In fact, the Alliance’s creation was part of a broader effort to serve three purposes: deterring Soviet expansionism, forbidding the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encouraging European political integration.

The aftermath of World War II saw much of Europe devastated in a way that is now difficult to envision. Approximately 36.5 million Europeans had died in the conflict, 19 million of them civilians. Refugee camps and rationing dominated daily life. In some areas, infant mortality rates were one in four. Millions of orphans wandered the burnt-out shells of former metropolises. In the German city of Hamburg alone, half a million people were homeless".

Clearly this is one sided view as what they did to British Indians and Japanese during the war is very well known to everyone.

There is no doubt that Russia was expanding very fast and they had a very violent Russian Revolution which lead to the rise of Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks by killing the Czar (King) in 1917 - 1923 which was inspiring many in the Europe too and so the rulers of European nations were worried about their Politics that is to protect their own rule. Also, in February 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over by throwing off the democratically elected government which concerned everyone. So the Europeans and the Americans understood that they need to come together to counter the ideology of communism.

USA then passed the US-funded Marshall Plan (also known as the European Recovery Program) to help Europe recover from the war losses. And this is how the NATO was formed, Article 5 of the charter says that "an armed attack against one or more of them… shall be considered an attack against them all” and that following such an attack, each Ally would take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force". Article 3 laid the foundation for cooperation in military preparedness between the Allies, and Article 2 allowed them some leeway to engage in non-military cooperation.

What are the Myths and Reality associated with it?

Myth - NATO is a security alliance.

Reality- It is to show up the strength against the USSR.

Myth - NATO is to protect countries.

Reality - NATO is to create a single narrative that suits the west.

Myth - NATO is comprised of peaceful and democratic countries.

Reality - NATO has peace loving America (who threw nuclear bombs on poor Japanese) and Turkey who is single handedly supporting Pakistan Terrorist.

Myth - NATO is not expanding.

Reality - NATO is deliberately being expanded even after the purpose of it is fulfilled, that is to break the USSR (already happened in 1991).

Overall it is the west who is the root of all the problems which it is trying to solve or pretending to solve right now whether it is the Taliban in Afghanistan (It was America who gave birth to Taliban in it's shape the way it is today) whether it is Ukraine crisis, ISIS, North Korea - South Korea dispute, poor economy of Venezuela, radicalism in Iran etc.

Also check how Dr. S. Jaishankar recently gave it back to the Europe and the west as whole on it's hypocrisy. Check here:- YouTube Video (Ministry of External Affairs

stay tuned for more..

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