Gates: Western alliance at risk

Gates: Western alliance at risk

news.yahoo.com

MUNICH, Germany - NATO's survival is at stake in the debate over how the United States and Europe should share the burden of fighting Islamic extremism in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
"We must not — we cannot — become a two-tiered alliance of those willing to fight and those who are not," Gates told the Munich Conference on Security Policy, where Afghanistan was a central topic.

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Though NATO is theoretically in charge of the mission, the top commander and the biggest troop percentage is from the USA.

This could be the show down that breaks NATO.

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Quite how the situation in Afghanistan ever became a NATO responsibility is beyond me. Whatever happened to "you broke it, you own it"?

It's high time Gordon Brown pulled British troops out instead of having them patrol poppy fields Or, is that what they are there for, to protect the growing and flow of illegal heroin to the west?

I for one don't particularly care what happens in Afghanistan. Let the people of that land do what they want to do within their borders, it's no concern of mine.

The US Governement is itself at fault if it hasnt got enough troops for the "War on Terrorism", because it locked down the troops in Iraq. Why should the NATO allies be responsible for that mischief ?

there will be dissent in NATO,

but for all practical purposes the USA will brow beat and coerce them
all into some degree of submission. Maybe not as front-line combatants,
but a pound-of-flesh will be filleted from all those nations which were
given second-life by the USA & it's Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe.

Bit straneg how that country broke the soviets, and now its doing the same to nato. Do you remember guiliani, wanting, most big countirs in the world in nato. I thought it was supposed to be north atlantic, but nato is just expanding and expanding.

Nato will survive, shame though, we could all do with getting our countries back, but they are gone now.

[edit on 2/10/2008 by andy1033]

Originally posted by St Udio
there will be dissent in NATO,

but for all practical purposes the USA will brow beat and coerce them
all into some degree of submission. Maybe not as front-line combatants,
but a pound-of-flesh will be filleted from all those nations which were
given second-life by the USA & it's Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe.

When exactly will the USA stop banging on about WW2? It's getting rather tiresome.

Europe has more than paid back the USA, not least with the complete surrender of all colonies (as was required by the US founded United Nations Charter), opening up vast amounts of resources for exploitation by the only industrial economy to emerge unravaged from the War, which enabled America to build the world's largest economy.

Without WW2, America would not be "number 1" and would in fact more likely be on an even playing field of several major powers. However, WW2 did happen and as a result, the USA benefited quite nicely out of it.

On topic, the Yanks broke the place, so quite how they expect countries that weren't even involved in the initial invasion to "chip in" is beyond me.

Getting invovled in Afghanistan is about like getting invovled in Vietnam. In fact didn't we, the Americans, get the whole thing started. Perhaps it was the oil pipeline or maybe the money from the opium trade but for some reason we must have thought it would have a diffrent end that the Russain debacle. Unfortunatly what the people want in America doesn't figure into governemnt policy. Yet they call it a democracy. Shouldn't democracy begin at home?

Originally posted by St Udio
there will be dissent in NATO,

but for all practical purposes the USA will brow beat and coerce them
all into some degree of submission.

But i don't really believe that the US can really brow beat France, Britain, Spain, Germany, Italy or any of the other major western powers into doing something their governments don't want done any ways. Lets not forget that those governments are going directly against the mandate provided to them by their various people and that they are taking HUGE political risks in supporting US backed NATO aggression against the third world.

Maybe not as front-line combatants,
but a pound-of-flesh will be filleted from all those nations which were
given second-life by the USA & it's Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe.

Wall street funded into existence the German war machine and i suggest that it's only fair that they provided some of the funds ( and don't believe for one moment that it was a hand out as US funds bought out formerly European owned industry) that helped to build up western Europe after the Second world war.

Stellar

reply to post by stumason

Europe would have either a distinct "Hitler a la mode" taste or an intoxicating "Russia en special potato white" kick about it....if it were not for Canada and the US saving you all.
all.www.reaganfoundation.org...
".....tear down this wall.....'

[edit on 10-2-2008 by whiteraven]

NATO is an organization that hasn't had a purpose since 1991.

It ought to be dissolved.

Originally posted by whiteraven
reply to post by stumason

 

Europe would have either a distinct "Hitler a la mode" taste or an intoxicating "Russia en special potato white" kick about it....if it were not for Canada and the US saving you all.
all.www.reaganfoundation.org...
".....tear down this wall.....'

[edit on 10-2-2008 by whiteraven]

Point being, the US got involved for purely selfish reasons. Canada was involved from the get go with us in the UK.

Had we not stood up to the Germans on our own for 2 years, the the US would not have got involved at all, but happily have left Hitler in charge of Europe and traded with him.

It took extensive covert operations by the British SIS to manage to coerce American politicians not to support Germany, but back the UK instead. the American public were quite evenly split about who to support in Europe, with Hitler getting quite a bit of support in Congress and the Senate to begin with.

Didn't know that? Oh well...

O.K....give me some thing to back your argument up. I am interested and want to source it.

"It took extensive covert operations by the British SIS to manage to coerce American politicians not to support Germany, but back the UK instead. the American public were quite evenly split about who to support in Europe, with Hitler getting quite a bit of support in Congress and the Senate to begin with..." Your Quote...I just want a few good sources.

Well Mr. Robert Gates, dear U.S Defense Secretary, i'm affraid you will be playing poker lonely for the next decades to come. Happy bluffing. I cannot wait to see the result on the news.

It's true, since 1991 Nato is all gone.1st cold war..gone

Like it or not Europe will not pursue American interests, well i hope because you never know with the politicians.

That's the way i see things

The real target is not Islamist, it's the Chinese.

It's all about economy, not religion.

Most of Euros don't care about religion we've seen it all since centuries We even carried the torch in the name of christianity and killed for that w/o remorse."God" fooled us enough, and we know it.

I say we all pull out of Afghanistan and let the terrorist move out of Pakistan, Regroup and make camps so we can bomb the hell out of them. They are never going to secure the whole country anyway. Its the wild west there.