What’s in a name? NATO’s ‘Steadfast Defender’ is exercise in doublespeak, responsiblestatecraft.org

Anatol Lieven, senior research fellow on Russia and Europe at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

[…] Because of course the European NATO members are not truly confident that the United States would in fact be steadfast in their defense in the event of war, have no confidence at all in their own capacity to defend themselves, and yet are utterly unwilling to make the effort necessary to strengthen that capacity.

By way of keeping a family relationship among the names, one particular part of the present operation could also be called “Operation Delusional Hedgehog.” This is the part which involves NATO forces deploying to the Black Sea to fight against Russia in Ukraine. In this case, “Operation Mendacious Hedgehog” might be even more appropriate, because we have known for a fact since Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014 that NATO will not fight to defend either of these countries. Moreover, this NATO “plan” appears to have forgotten that to get warships to the Black Sea you have to pass through the Bosphorus, which is part of Turkey — not perhaps the most reliable of NATO allies these days, above all when it comes to conflict with Russia?

Should God forbid there be another war in Ukraine (perhaps caused by the Ukrainians making the Georgian mistake of 2008 and actually believing Washington’s half-promises of support), then the name for NATO’s strategy in this case would come straight from A Winter’s Tale: “Operation Exit Pursued By A Bear.” As for the Ukrainians, the name for their effort to gain NATO military support against Russia should all too obviously be called “Operation Love’s Labour’s Lost.” Läs artikel