THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 13, 1994 TAG: 9412130005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Another View
SOURCE: By LAWRENCE KORB
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
The world's most successful and powerful alliance, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has not only become obsolete, it has become an impediment to peace and security in Europe. The United States should begin giving NATO a decent burial.
Putting an end to NATO in no way should diminish its magnificent accomplishments. It kept the peace in Europe for nearly 50 years and brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union and its empire and the reunification of Germany.
NATO contained Soviet communist expansionism because it provided a mechanism for American involvement in and leadership of Europe, and it controlled German rearmament. Its success did not come easily. Elections in the 16 democracies that make up NATO required continual efforts to maintain popular support for the costs of the alliance and an unprecedented bipartisan approach to European security in each of the member states. Arguments about burden-sharing were a constant source of tension, and the Suez crisis in 1956, the French withdrawal from NATO military involvement in 1966 and the deployment of cruise missiles in Europe in the early 1980s severely strained the alliance, calling for steadfast and enlightened leadership.
But with the victory over the Soviet empire, NATO has lost its reason for being. Because the collapse of the Soviet Union was so sudden, not much thought was given to a new security architecture for Europe. Five years ago, the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose summit in Budapest President Clinton attended Monday, was little more than a floating seminar, and the Western Europe Union was only a paper military force. So NATO was allowed to stay in existence with the hope that it would form part of the new architecture.
But NATO has shown itself incapable of finding a role that would make it relevant in the new world order. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, NATO could not agree to go ``out of area'' even though Europe's vital interests were directly involved in the Persian Gulf. Instead, the United States assembled an ad hoc coalition, including many NATO members, to evict Iraq.
When Yugoslavia dissolved and the Serbs committed acts of military aggression and undertook a campaign of anti-Muslim terror, or ethnic cleansing, right on NATO's doorstep, NATO did nothing. The problem was turned over to the United Nations. Thus, when NATO belatedly agreed to use its air power in Bosnia and Croatia, it allowed the United Nations to dictate the terms of the engagement, resulting in either inaction or pinprick attacks against empty tanks rather than strategic bombing.
As Secretary of Defense William Perry noted last week, ``NATO is prepared to respond with air strikes if the U.N. asks them. The U.N. has not been asking for air strikes and therefore we are really powerless to conduct air strikes to influence that situation.''
Finally, when the former captive members of the Soviet empire sought to join NATO to protect themselves from Russia, NATO, afraid to antagonize Russia, responded with a halfway house called ``Partnership for Peace,'' which invited these countries to conduct military exercises with NATO without actually joining the alliance. But even this scheme was undermined when Russia joined the partnership.
Being irrelevant is bad enough, but the existence of NATO has become an obstacle to peace and security for Europe and to America's own interests on the continent. If there were no NATO, the United States could unilaterally lift the arms embargo against the Muslims and not have Adm. Leighton Smith, NATO's southern commander and commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe, in the absurd position of ordering European ships in his NATO command to enforce the embargo while not allowing American ships to enforce it.
NATO has served the United States, Europe and the world well. But so has the horse cavalry, the battleship and Metternich's Concert of Europe.
Let's get rid of it so that the alliance is remembered for containing and defeating the Soviet empire, and not for being a pitiful, helpless giant in the face of Serb aggression, or for provoking incipient Russian jingoism. by CNB