In April of 1949 the United States and 11 Western European countries signed an agreement establishing the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide collective security against the Soviet Union. The most significant clause in this treaty was "Article 5," in which signatories agreed that "an armed attack against one or more of them.... shall be considered an attack against them all." Following such an attack each ally would take "such action as it (considered) necessary, including the use of armed force". In retaliation, in 1955, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellite states formed the Warsaw Pact. Aside from the USSR, this group included Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria. Fast forward 70 plus year, after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet empire, all of these former satellite states are now part of NATO, a significant thorn in the side of Russia's current autocratic leader Vladimir Putin.
Putin, a foreign intelligence Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB for 16 years, has effectively run the Russian government ever since President Boris Yeltsin appointed him on August 9, 1999. He continues to articulate his disenchantment with Russia's diminishing strategic power and influence vis-à-vis NATO and the European Union, and he has been vocal about what he considers to be an existential threat to his country from these two organizations. He is dedicated to weakening the EU and undermining the NATO military alliance to extend his power and potentially recover a hegemonic role for Russia. In his mind the collapse of the USSR was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. The fact that 10 formerly Communist states joined the EU rubbed additional salt into Russian wounds. As a former KGB puppet master Putin initiated subtle, and not so subtle, attacks on his adversaries.
It should be understood that nothing significant emerging from Russia happens without Putin's consent. In 2007, Estonia, which with six other Eastern European nations joined NATO in 2004, suffered a crippling cyber attack, essentially shutting down the entire country, solely because, contrary to explicit warnings emanating from Moscow, it removed a Soviet WWII memorial from its capital's downtown. In 2008, after Georgia expressed an interest in joining NATO, Russia invaded its provinces Abkhazia and South Ossetia, ultimately declaring them independent states, and regrouping them under the Russian umbrella. In 2014 Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. Later that year, the 53rd Anti Aircraft Rocket Brigade of the Russian Federation shot down a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet over rebel territory in Ukraine, killing all 298 on board. In 2016 Russia plotted to overthrow Montenegro's government and assassinate its Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, to sabotage that country's plan to join NATO, something they did a year later anyway. That same year, allegedly with support of the Federal Security Service, successor to the KGB, and the GRU, the military intelligence service, Russia effectively meddled in the British "Brexit" referendum, supporting the "leave" campaign headed up by Nigel Farrage. Subsequent Russian interference in the U.S. and French elections has also been well established. In the meantime dozens of Putin's critics died violently or disappeared altogether. Boris Nemtsov - shot in the back in front of the Kremlin, Alexander Litvinenko - poisoned with Polonium 210, and Sergei Magnitsky - killed in prison, are cases in point. In short, Vladimir Putin will stop at nothing to accomplish his objectives. He is the consummate professional KGB officer, accomplished puppet master, a merciless killer, and no friend of the West.
President Trump's open skepticism of NATO, its continued relevance, and the viability of "Article 5" of its charter, mouthing Russia's talking points, is playing into Putin's hands. During an interview on Fox News Trump explicitly questioned why an American would have to defend a small country like Montenegro, which is more than 5,000 miles away. Qualifying and conditioning the notion of NATO's defense guarantee is a major step towards abandoning it. The only time in history when the Article 5 guarantee was invoked was after 9/11. Our allies sent tens of thousands of troops to fight alongside Americans in Afghanistan, spent tens of billions of dollars, and suffered more than 1,000 casualties in defense of an ally. Georgia and Ukraine were invaded with impunity, without eliciting military retaliation, because they did not belong to the NATO alliance.
After Trump's private meeting with Putin in Helsinki, and subsequent to his submissive participation in their press conference, patriots on both sides of the political aisle, and most of our allies who stood by us for 70 plus years, questioned U.S. bias and commitment after the president publicly challenged the veracity of his own intelligence experts while chastising NATO and branding the EU a "foe," again effectively doing Putin's bidding. Former CIA director and career intelligence officer John Brennan tweeted that Trump's performance in Helsinki "rises to and exceeds the threshold of 'high crimes and misdemeanors.' Nothing short of treasonous," while calling his comments "imbecilic, wholly in the pocket of Putin." Rumor has it that one of the items the two leaders agreed to is that Georgia and Ukraine will never be allowed to join NATO. Not entirely unexpectedly, Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that the summit results were "better than super," while our own senior staff appeared reticent about discussing the meeting's content at all.
By tweeting that: "Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of US foolishness and stupidity, and now the Rigged Witch Hunt," (sic), Donald Trump either reflects ignorance, is gullible, or somehow beholden to the Russian dictator. As Charles de Gaulle, and numerous others following him, remarked: "No nation has friends, only interests." If Trump insists on inviting Putin to DC this fall, we are essentially bringing the KGB into the White House, the inner sanctum of our democracy. In some sense we are encountering a scene from a play detailing the onset of our revolution. The composite intelligence services play Paul Revere, screaming: "The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming." Unfortunately, someone also needs to play the role of Benedict Arnold.....
No comments:
Post a Comment