[…] With the Russian bear hobbled, NATO was used to pull mostly half-hearted European contingents into a nation-building exercise in Central Asia in 2002. The understandable risk aversion and national caveats of most NATO forces in Afghanistan undermined the alliance’s credibility and cohesion. In a fitting rebuttal, the British and French dragged the U.S. and NATO into the even more foolish Libyan intervention in 2011. Far from protecting Europe, let alone America, NATO has become an engine for putting muscle behind bad ideas. That NATO and even the European Union could be destroyed by the refugee tides flowing partly from Afghanistan and through Libya may end up being one of history’s ironies.
To those who argue that American troops are required to deter supposed Russian revanchism in Europe, one need only look just outside the alliance’s borders to Ukraine. There, even in a state that borders his own, Russian President Vladimir Putin is unable to achieve his larger aims. Läs artikel