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Originally Posted by Commander Wallace
 I couldn't agree more. I will ask you this since you are putting together the map of NATO expansion and may have more insight. This is also an open question to our other Subsim members.
NATO started to expand eastward after the breakup of the Soviet Union / Fall of Communism in 1991. Why then did NATO need to expand Eastward ?
Wouldn't it have been better to show a sign of Good Faith and leave the current members numbers as they were ? Certainly, the U.S and other European countries like Germany and Great Britain and others could have worked with the former Soviet Bloc countries like Poland that had been in the sphere of Influence behind the Iron Curtain. This would not require membership in NATO.
I am a U.S Citizen, born and bred but I also think we have mishandled a number of things very badly. The above may be one such blunder. |
"Why then did NATO need to expand Eastward ?"
I've never known an answer for that and I've been looking back into that for an answer since the War in Ukraine started a few weeks ago. I stopped following news re international politics in the early 2000s so I had a lot of catching up to do. My last memory from the early 2000s was hearing the Baltics states had been admitted to NATO and thinking, "that sounds crazy, that is exactly how you start a war in Europe." I assumed the answer for NATO expansion was going to be the left and the right in American politics continuing policies from the cold war. Questions like, "Why did Bill Clinton initiate NATO expansion?", "Why did Barrack Obama of all people take such a leading role in this confrontation?" has led me to see that the liberal left this time actually had the leading role. Just after I posted this a few days ago I was pointed to the "Wolfowitz Doctrine" from the early 90s and now see part of the conservative rights side. It is clear to me now that US policy for the last 30 years has been at least not the best path to achieve peace, largely misguided and even dangerous. The possible conclusion was so sad and disappointing I took the last few days off from exhaustion.
My conclusion is something like this:
Since the end of the cold war for 30 years three groups in Washington from within Neo-conservatives, the liberal left, and members of Republican and Democratic presidential administrations with ethnic/Jewish ties to eastern Europe have used NATO expansion in order to defend Eastern Europe and drive America into a confrontation with Russia.
I've just learned most of this in the last few weeks or even days and believe me, I know it's a lot and I've been struggling with it the entire time. None of my family or friends want to even hear that I'm uncomfortable with the amount of possible responsibility America may have in this war. Here's a playlist of sources if you want to look into this. Senator Bill Bradely (D) video from 2008 is probably the best explanation I've found re the history and issues with the expansion of NATO.
I don't know what good this will do now, but since we are talking about WW3 and nuclear war I want to at least try and understand what's really going on.
Expansion of NATO military alliance playlist:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...v5N5YcJDJFIPa1
-Tim McCarthy
"another U.S citizen" and veteran US Army