North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

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History of NATO enlargement — Map of NATO historic enlargement in Europe.

KFOR Kosovo2 — German KFOR soldiers patrol southern Kosovo in the Summer of 1999.

Turkish KFOR soldiers in riot training — Turkish Land Forces KFOR soldiers in riot training on 25 September 2010.

History

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); French: Organisation du Traité de l'Atlantique Nord (OTAN); (also called the North Atlantic Alliance, the Atlantic Alliance, or the Western Alliance) is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the organization constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party.

The background to it's formation

For decades Britain had traditional supported Greece, but was near bankruptcy in 1949 due to the Second World War and was thus forced to end all meaningful involvement in Greece. This is why Britain had formally requested the United States take over its role in supporting Greece during the February of 1947. Yugoslavia and Bulgaria had also got there own plans to spread communism to Greece, conquer Albania and set up a Yugoslav puppet state in Greek Macedonia.

The Berlin airlift, the rising numbers of Soviet troops in East Germany during the late 1940s and Czechoslovak coup of 1948 all increased the perception among many Europeans that the Soviets posed a real danger, helping to prompt the entry into NATO of Portugal (fascist), Iceland (weak), Italy (communist insurgency), Denmark (weak) and Norway (bordered the USSR). The Icelandic NATO riot of March 30, 1949 was the only major public protest over NATO at the time.

Several nations had already agreed to found it about 6 months earlier. These nations were- France, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, the US, the UK and Canada.

Cold War

For its first few years, NATO was not much more than a political association. However, the Korean War galvanised the member states, and an integrated military structure was built up under the direction of two U.S. supreme commanders. The first NATO Secretary General Lord Ismay, famously described the organization's goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down". Throughout the Cold War doubts over the strength of the relationship between the European states and the United States ebbed and flowed, along with doubts over the credibility of the NATO defense against a prospective Soviet invasion - doubts that led to the development of the independent French nuclear deterrent and the withdrawal of the French from NATO's military structure from 1966.

Some LTV A-7 Corsair II aircraft was also exported to Greece in the 1970s and Portugal in the late 1980s to upgrade there aging fleets. They were, like the USA, part of NATO.

Later years

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the organisation became drawn into the Balkans while building better links with former potential enemies to the east, which culminated with the former European Warsaw Pact states (exsept the USSR, al be it less the Baltic States) - except Albania - joining the alliance in 1999 and 2004. Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, NATO has attempted to refocus itself to new challenges and has deployed troops to Afghanistan and trainers to Iraq. France, Croatia and Albania had joined by 2009.

1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and KFOR

NATO helped free Kosovo with the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and joined KFOR As of 26 December 2013, KFOR consists of 4,000 troops. It did well in this role.

Kosovo's independence is a divisive issue since it is an artificial made, 90% ethnically pure, homeland for Kosovars. It covers the former Serbian province of Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.

Expatiation

In Europe

Greece and Turkey joined the military alliance joined NATO in 1952 since it guaranteed their protection from communist invasion and terrorism.
Politicly unstable Spain joined in 1982 (it was still fighting the ETA separatist movement back then) encase it needed help looking after it's overseas assets whilst fighting terrorism at home.
Germany reunited in 1990 and did no go neutral as originaly envisaged.
Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic joined the organization, amid much debate within the organisation and Russian opposition in 1999. They were scared of Russia's slide toward oligarchy and dictatorship.
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania joined NATO on 29 March 2004. The were disgusted by Russia's bullying tactics and cutting gas supplies to Ukraine.
Albania and Croatia joined on 1 April 2009. The were concerned about any long turn resurgent Serbian treat.
Finland, Moldova, Serbia, Sweden, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia and Montenegro have either recently asked to join or were invited to join at a later date.
The Republic of Kosovo wants to join NATO, but 4 NATO states blocked this. The fascist nations Greece (hates Albanians and Macedonians) and Spain (hates Basques and Catalans, the prior then went on to founded ETA in response), hopelessly divided Cyprus and the former Eastern Bloc nations of Romania, Slovakia, do not recognize Kosovo's independence. The United Nations (UN) dose not reconise it either since it is an artificial made ethnic homeland for Kosovars. It covers the former Serbian province of Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. FEFA and the IOC do reconise it. The EU unofficaly reconised it in 2012.
In 2011, NATO officially recognised the plans of four aspiring members: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Macedonia and Montenegro. Macedonia has been prevented from joining the alliance by Greece, who has racist views even about it's name 'Macedonia'. Sweden, Finland, Serbia, and Ukraine have had recent open political debate on the topic of membership. Russia fears what remains of Ukraine (as of 2015) joining NATO.

Possible global moves

Some have proposed expanding NATO outside of Europe, which would require amending Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

The proposals cover Mexico, Colombia, New Zealand, South Korea, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore, Israel, Australia, India and Japan.

During the June 2013, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos stated his hope that Colombia's cooperation with NATO could result in NATO membership, but his Foreign Minister, Juan Carlos Pinzon, quickly clarified that Colombia is not actively seeking NATO membership.

NATO's rules

Willingness to settle international, ethnic or external territorial disputes by peaceful means, commitment to the rule of law, human rights and democratic control of armed forces.
Ability to contribute to the organization's defence and missions.
Spend atleast 2% of national budgets on defence.
Devotion of sufficient resources to armed forces to be able to meet the commitments of membership.
Security of sensitive information, and safeguards ensuring it.
Compatibility of domestic legislation with NATO cooperation.
Mutual defence, a 'one for all and all for one' doctrine.

Military exercises

Reforger_II_-_NATO_Exercise_(1970) — Reforger II - NATO Exercise (1970)

Reforger II - NATO Exercise (1970).

NATO held several exercises during the Cold War such as Western Europe's Exercise Reforger and Scandinavia's Exercise Northern Viking.

Exercise Ocelot '99 was Poland's first international air exercise since joining NATO in the 1990's.

Criticisms, inter-member backstabbing and alleged inactions

Operation Gladio

Operation Gladio had been covertly supported in least in some places by NATO. The Prime supporters were America, Canada and the UK.

Some units were good like in Austria where it had been covertly set up by far-right winger Herr Soucek and Herr Rössner as a genuine attempt to fight any occupying forces; while others were bad like in Turkey, which were the political enemies of the then Turkish prime minister Bülent Ecevit. He was the target of several assassination plots. Rumours persist it's ageing members still covertly hold out in places.

The 1953-1966 Project Iceworm

Whilst logical and necessary, American attempts to build an ICBM silo in northern Greenland were done without Denmark's and were thus illegal. The Danish never liked nuclear bombs and regarded them as overly horrific and unjustified.

ETA, the Troubles and alike

America was intermittently offering unofficial diplomatic sympathy and help to both the IRA and other related Irish Nationalist/Republican groups. America was probably helping Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey anginas Basque nationalist/communist ETA terrorist organisation via Operation Gladio. The Guerrilleros de Cristo Rey (Warriors of Christ the King) was possibly also conected with the Argentine Anticommunist Alliance (AKA- The Triple A).

Italy's Years of Lead

Covert forces run by Operation Gladio intervened in Italy's Years of Lead with out Italy kowning and backed both National Vanguard and Ordine Nuovo.

The Cod Wars

The 2nd (or 1972-73) Anglo-Icelandic Cod War

Klippuemployment — The primary objective of the Icelandic Coast Guard during the latter two wars was to cut nets in this manner.

On 16 September, Joseph Luns, Secretary-General of NATO held talks with with Icelandic ministers after they had asked to leave NATO since it had not blindly and automatic sided with the against the UK, Belgium and W. Germany, but had gone neutral instead. They wanted UK and US forces out. In the end they stayed in, but only after all UK and some US forces left.

The 3rd (or 1975-76) Anglo-Icelandic Cod War

This on and off fishing despite and the subsequent 'Cod Wars' became more dangerous when Iceland threatened closure of the NATO base at Keflavík, thus undermining NATO's securing of the Atlantic Ocean from the Soviet Union, so the UK agreed to Iceland's 200 nautical mile (370 km) exclusion zone without a specific agreement. 2 Icelandic fishing boats had also registered under the Soviet flag. The Soviets were a bit confused by the event, but did accepted the Icelandic ships' documents all tha same.

A theory was going at the time was that Iceland was going to betray the plans for their part of the SOSUS sonar buoy line in the GIUK gap to the USSR, which angered the USA greatly.

All of this was more than enough for the UK, UK, Belgium, W. Germany, USA and ultimately the rest of NATO to call Iceland a traitor and to invade it, which they did not.

The 1974 Cypriot coup d'état and 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus

Greece was not prevented from subverting the island's government in the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état nor was Turkey stopped from invading it. Both acts were with aggressive intentions towards the opposite ethnicity on Cyprus.

The early 1980s Dutch refusal to take nuclear weapons.

The Dutch never liked nucliar bombs and regarded them as overly horrific and unjustifyed. The USA bullied them in to taking up nuclear armed American troops and threatened to kick them out of NATO at one point. Both the Dutch Oud-Strijders Legioen and some members of the UK's CND organised several of the 1980s against the stationing of American nuclear arms in the Netherlands.

1982 Falklands War

The United Nations Security Council Resolution 502, which passed with ten votes in support, one against (Panama) and four abstentions (China, the Soviet Union, Poland and Spain). The Soviet Union did have several interests in the South Atlantic and Antarctic region, but chose not to intervene in the war. The United States was also concerned by the prospect of Argentina turning to the Soviet Union for support and initially tried to mediate an end to the conflict. President Regan ensured that U.S. provided the United Kingdom with military equipment ranging from submarine detectors and satellite images to hi-tech radios and the latest missiles. They even agreed to a request by the UK goverment to borrow the Sea Harrier-capable amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) if the British lost an aircraft carrier. France was upset by Argentina's needless use of military force and provided dissimilar no-exsport veriant aircraft training so Harrier pilots could train against the French aircraft used by Argentina, while Argentina's training was at best off topic.

The French and British intelligence services co-operated to prevent Argentina from obtaining more Exocet missiles on the international market. West Germany informally gave some supplies to the UK. The satellite signal interception station at Fauske (Fauske II), Norway was vital in giving the British intelligence information regarding Argentinian fleet locations during the 1982 Falklands War.

Denmark, Iceland, Portugal, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece and Turkey offered no help to the UK despite being part of NATO.

1983 U.S. Intervention in Grenada

Operation Urgent Fury (AKA: the 1983 U.S. Intervention in Grenada) was a 1983 United States–led invasion of Grenada, a Caribbean island nation with a population of about 91,000 located 160 kilometres (99 mi) north of Venezuela, that resulted in a U.S. victory within a matter of weeks. Grenada had been a colony of the United Kingdom until 1974, but had retained the British monarch as head of state after independence. The leftist and pro-Cuban New Jewel Movement seized power in a coup in 1979, It was seen favourably by much of the Grenadian population, even after suspending the constitution.

In a United Nations General Assembly vote over the American invasion 108 were in favour of the resalution and 9 (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, El Salvador, Israel, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the United States) voting against, with 27 abstentions. They adopted the General Assembly Resolution 38/7, which was worded as to "deeply deplores the armed intervention in Grenada, which constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State." The invasion was opposed by the United Kingdom, USSR, Trinidad and Tobago and Canada, The USSR condemn it as a war of aggression and accused the USA of undermining Grenada for several years earlier.

The UK was usually friendly towards to the new Grenadian and wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis, so the USA, Barbados and Jamaica did not tell them when it was going to happen until it had already started, which left the UK out of any major decision making until it was to late. The usual fears about leeks, Soviet military intervention, fast moving Cold War political situations and suspected Cuban agents had panicked the American intelligence community, so the military had to do a rush job anyhow.

The UK's population had taken it as a major personal sight against them by the USA, Barbados and Jamaica. The British goverment was more concerned that it was not consulted by America than anything else, but was glad to see the communists removed. America, Jamaica and Barbados were also left concerned if the UK still regarded Grenada as a colony or if the British were relay still an ally of the USA.

1986 United States bombing of Libya

Libya's support fort the 1985 Rome and Vienna airport attacks, Red Army Faction, the Red Brigades (in Italy), quarrels with neighbouring African states and the Irish Republican Army; the Gulf of Sidra incident, and the 5 April 1986 bombing by Libyan agents of the "La Belle" nightclub in West Berlin angered NATO's leadership greatly. West Germany and the United States soon obtained diplomatic cable transcripts from Libyan agents in East Germany who were involved in the attack.

Canada allowed the appropriate war games in Newfoundland and the UK allowed the use of RAF Upper Heyford to launch the attack force from.

For the Libyan raid, the United States was denied overflight rights by France, Spain, and Italy. West Germany refused overflights and the use of it's air bases. Both France and W. Germany resented the USA not asking permission until the last moment and refusing to say what he mission was about beyond that the USAF was gonging to bomb Libya. The Italian politician Bettino Craxi warned the Libyans about the planned attack and Italy proceeded to betray the NATO plans (as far as they knew them at the time) to Libya! The Americans had to fly over Portugal and through the Straits of Gibraltar, thus adding 1,300 miles (2,100 km) each way with increased aerial refuelling to do so.

Soviet Union had unexpectedly chosen to explicitly announced that it would not provide additional help to Libya beyond resupplying basic armaments and munitions, but denounced the attack as a 'wild' and 'barbaric' act by the United States. Libya soon retaliated by the firing two non-nuclear Scud missiles at a United States Coast Guard station that was situated on the Italian island of Lampedusa, but they overshot the target and landed harmlessly in the sea.

All of what Italy had done was more than enough for the USA and the rest of NATO to call Italy a traitor and to invade it, which they did not. America's refusal to co-operate with France and W. Germany was also a breach of NATO's rules.

The 1995 Srebrenica massacre

Flag of Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1998) — The Bosnian separatist and 1st Bosnian national flag.

The USA, UK and France ignored Dutch requests to launch air strikes or send in ground forces, which lead to ~8,000 Muslim/Bozniak townsfolk and some of the the Dutch peacekeepers getting killed by the Bosnian Serbs in the Srebrenica massacre. The USA, UK and France were colluding with the Serbs on finding a quick and easy solution to the local fighting before ending war, which was finally closed under the Dayton accords.

The 9/11 attacks

Article 5 of the NATO treaty is it's casus foederis. It commits each member state to consider an armed attack against one member state to be an armed attack against them all. It was invoked only once so far and it was done by the United States after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Apparently, the governments of Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark showed no overt sympathy to the USA or any condemnation of the attacks, unlike thier citizens. If they did not actually offer any covert help either and really meant to see America swing, then they thus breached the treaty's mutual defense aspect.

'Espionnage Élysée'

America's NSA spied between 2004-2014 on the communications of:

French President Francois Hollande (2012–present),
French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012),
French President Jacques Chirac (1995–2007),
French cabinet ministers (2004-2014),
The French Ambassador to the United States (2004-2014).

Rumors also swilled around in the UK tabloids between 1981 and 1982 of 3 snooping devices in 'Golf-ball' class radomes peering at the radio phone/fax communications Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1981 and François Mitterrand between 1981 and 1982.

Whilst all NATO members do occasional snoop on each other just in case of a undetected covert plot forming from with-in another member state, constantly harassing France would brought in to question weather the USA ever trusted it, explaining why it left NATO under General Charles DeGalle, but still remained a western ally.

Syria, et all

Syrian–Turkish border incidents during the Syrian civil war

Nato Missle Defense System in Turkey against Syria — Six batteries of U.S. made, but NATO-backed, missile defense systems have been set up in southeastern Turkey to protect against aerial attacks from war-torn Syria in 2013. Single battery in foreground Gaziantep, Turkey in the background.

The Syrian army fired an artillery shell fired from Syria and thus killed 5 and injured at least 10 Turkish citizens in the border town of Akçakale in Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. This was known as the October 2012 Syrian-Turkish border clashes. Others occurred in 2013 and 2014 and a Turkish aircraft was shot down on the border in 2011.

Following Ankara's invocation of Article IV of the Washington Treaty, NATO's North Atlantic Council stated that the alliance.

Several MIM-104 Patriot missiles from Netherlands, Germany, and U.S. were sent to Turkey and went active on the Turkish border with Syria. They were joined by a Spanish unit in 2014.

The UK, Italy and I think Canada to, apparently denounced this and later refused to help. If they did not offer any covert help either and relay meant to see Turkey swing, they breaching their duty to help Turkey in it's hour of need.

NATO feuding over Syria

The West, the Gulf countries and Turkey support sported the FSA.
The YPG has help from the Peshmerga and PKK.
Russia, China and Iran support the ruling Bashar al-Assad regime.
The US is opposed to the radicalised Syrian Jihadist and ISIL, so they are putting pressure on Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to stop supporting them.
Turkey is fighting on the opposite side to the rest of NATO and thus a traitor.

UK inaction in Syria

Despite the UK government saying the 3 2016 brimstone missiles and the ~10 2015 laser-guided bombs were a war winning blow, despite being vastly less damaging than the arsenal the French, Americans and Aussies used! The UK was regularly belittling the USA and France's war effort with out due cause!

Alleged NGO special plots jobs in Russia

Pressure has mounted on NGOs since about 2012 due to claims they were full of enemy spies, lied about Russia and spread miss formation to both Russians and there home nations as parts of and Anglo-American world take over plot. If it is proven true, then NATO broke the rules on posing as NGOs/ICRC/UN workers and/or hijacking the local mission's work-plan whilst doing so.

Anglo-French inaction in Libya

President Obama comented in the March of 2016, that the the USA had done all the hard work with bombers and cruise missiles, whilst the French just finnished it off wth a second round of bommings and stole America's golry by saying they did it all!

The British were accused of walking out on thier allies after agreeing with the USA, France, Quatar and Libya's NTC regime on staying in Libya to keep the pace and train up the locals in what a democracy is. America then left after the infomus terrorist bomb and gun attack on their embacy in Tripoli.

A few weeks later Mossad publicly supported the USA's accusations.

Britain and Germany spend under 2% of thier budgets on defense incident

Budget cuts meant that the UK and Germany spent under 2% of it's budget (1.8%) on defense in 2014, thus breaking NATO defense spending rules. Both raised it to just over 2% after America condemed them for letting the side down. The UK also esponded by a heavy upgrading the Faslane nuclear base, in Scotland, during 2015-16. The SNP got all England-phobic and were, like CND, upset by the nuclear warfare anyhow. President Obamba then accused the UK goverment of dooing it again in 2015-2016.

Only four countries spent 2% or more in in 2013, they were:- Estonia, Greece, the USA and the UK. France and Poland were just below at 1.9% and 1.8% respectivly.

America's general attitude

Recent history suggests they regard European NATO members and Australians as cannon fodder in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (unlike Korea and Vietnam) since they now don't have the national courage to do more than send in cruise missiles, bomber jets and armed UAVs! Apparently any latter-day European Hot-Cold War war scenario, unlike a Caribbean/Cuban, one is of less concern to them since mostly W. European civilian lives that would be lost and so they would not care as much about a attack us Europeans. The EU could have stood alone as of 2002!

The Turkish coup

America and the EU had condemned the Gulanis Army/air-force coup against president Euduan, who the accused of being a closet Islamist and a autocrat, when it was winning, but then slammed the Turkish government for winning and offered informal support to those elements that were operating in there countries. The EU was legally obliged by EU law (no EU death penalty) to threaten to cancel Turkish EU applicant status after it threatened hold mass executions, but the USA threatened to boot it out of NATO as well, dispute NATO no having a death penalty policy or caring what previous regimes got up to on the domestic front.

The pending collapse of the member nations?

The author estimates 8 nations will not be with in any shape to function as meaningful members by 2025.

Turkey- A Kurdish/Maoist/Army rebellion and became a rogue state.
UK- Economic collapse and a government plundering the national reserves. Scotland secedes
Greece- Economic collapse and a government plundering the national reserves.
America- A White population that is forming in to hate filled abomination, who is slipping to ethnic and sectarian civil war Blacks and Latinos. It is already hopelessly over run with street gangs, visual-antis and mobsters, who's power will soon grow to uncontrollable levels. It will soon (especially under a crank like Donald Trump) verge on all out war with China, N. Korea, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, Canada and Mexico.
Germany- A rogue state that is obsessed with ruining America's plans and extortionist money of the nations of Europe. Bavaria secedes.
Canada- A rogue state under the Harper regime, that was obsessed with ruining America's plans. Quebec and Alberta secede.
Poland- Finally got what it always wanted, a hopeless war with Russia. Sadly Poland gets stuffed!
Latvia- The Latgale region could rebel and be liberated by Russia. The rest of the nation would then annexed by Russia and became a Russian colony.

The European missile shield

The device

It was part of a larger defense system, which was also to have bee based in several East Asian states like Japan to see off ballistic missile attacks by N. Korea, Iran, Syria and Iraq (if they go off the rails and ISIS/IS/ISL win in the latter 2). Russia has several genuine, if rather paranoid, concerns over it. China is also got a bit worried about it at first.

The controversy

America withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in the June 2002, leading to its termination. The United States refused to help clam Russia down, let them share technology, agree to international inspectors or to use a viable former Soviet-come-Russian radar-base in Azerbaijan instead of the planned one in Turkey. The Americans also appeared to have hated the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty anyhow.

NATO's European nations called for a NATO wide missile defence system during the April of 2007. In response, the then Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed that such a large scale deployment could lead to a new arms race and could enhance the likelihood of mutual destruction.

He also suggested that his country would freeze its compliance with the 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) (which both the USA and Russia apparently hated it) until all the then NATO countries had ratified the adapted CFE treaty. The Americans' plans to create new bases in Romania and Bulgaria had, according to Russian officials, constituted a breach of the treaty.

In August 2008, Poland and the United States signed a preliminary deal to place part of the missile defence shield in Poland that would be linked to a high definition x-band air-defence radar in the Czech Republic. More than 130,000 Czechs signed a petition for a referendum on the base. The Radar was later sighted in Romania and Turkey during 2010.

Russia's ambassador to Denmark wrote a letter to the editor of Jyllandsposten. on 20 March 2015, warning that their participation in project would make their warships targets of Russian nuclear missiles. Later Denmark's former foreign relations minister, Holger K. Nielsen, commented that the would have known wartime been targets anyway.

America's President Barack Obama cancelled the deployment of long-range missile defence interceptors and equipment in Poland and the Czech Republic on 17 September 2009, favouring both short- and medium-range missiles using AEGIS warships of the coast of Spain, Libya would, Malta, Southern Libya and Greece instead.

The then Russian President Dimitri Medvedev announced that a proposed Russian Iskander surface to surface missile deployment in nearby Kaliningrad would also not go ahead.

Videos

The_history_of_NATO_-_video_timeline — The history of NATO - video timeline

The history of NATO - video timeline!

NATO_-_Ballistic_Missile_Defence_Overview-0 — NATO - Ballistic Missile Defence Overview-0

NATO - Ballistic Missile Defence Overview.

History_of_NATO — History of NATO

History of NATO.

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