NATO - still needed?

[Split from 'American Ignorance']

I haver a question about NAT), is it still needed after the fall of communism?

 

I dunno, but Europe has not delared war on itself in a while, besides Serbia.

Maybe a thread on that would be good.

The costs of developement of new weapons is OK, the F-16 was really a NATO project, like all F-16 wings are Danish made.

Why not, they make nifty coffee tables.

 

Well, while there really does seem to be no direct threat at the moment (the CCCP having collapsed), who knows what might happen?
No threat yet is not a good reason to assume that no threat will ever appear.

Having something like the increasingly-inaccurately named NATO means that

a) as Stonewall points out, it stops European wars (Latvia vs Lithuania, or whatever)

b) aspiring smaller powers will think twice before starting a war - say Iran vs Turkey, or whatever.

c) if the whole of Asia suddenly teams up and starts making meaningful glares at Europe, we will have a hope of surviving.

 

i don't see why the hell NATO should still be there. it was an alliance against the sovjets and there gone. you might still use it as an instituted to fight terrorism but that's it.
personaly i'm more, bey bey NATO and reform it to be part of the Europian Army.

 

Actually I ahve seen the rank ensignia of the European army it look better in my opionon than other countries, I dont eman to offend anyone.


Particullarly the Officers ensignia.http://www.uniforminsignia.net/index.php?p=show&id=79&sid=998

 

Sounds more like a reorganization than a complete removal and "new deal".

 

NATO and the europeen common market have become the same thing ,
thanks to tony blair , membership of NATO is seem as the prerequisite
for europeen admission , it was tony blair who said than turkey had to be
taken in because it would be unfair to have it as an allied but not as a
partner , the more east one move the more blurred the distinction become

And yes I know than canada is in Nato

there was also some ballons floating last week about Oz-tralia and the
kiwis joining , this would stretch the atlantic down to the antarctic ocean

Nato from pole to pole

.

 

hey gunter i love those ensignias





NATO, from pole to pole, soon it'll be the new UN if that happens

 

The UN is a supernational organization for peace and human rights. NATO is an international military alliance. The two are not really comparable and one will not easily turn into the other.

NATO is, in fact, little more than a system of nations under de facto control by the United States. If the organization is disbanded that doesn't mean the system also disappears, simply because American supremacy remains undeniable.

 

I heard the british are threateng America with pulling out of the USF (i think thats the acranem for it, its a fighter program) program, they already put it around 2 billion dollars, because the Americans wont give start of teh art technology. Well thats what I have been hearing.

 

JSF, Joint Strike Fighter.

True, the US don't want to share the technology and moreover they've cancelled a programme of developing alternative propulsion for the JSF, which was co-carried out by the UK.

 

Would you buy a multi million pound plane with technology you cannot control or access? That's what the UK has a beef about - the weapon systems that are part of the JSF are American but there seems to be stumbling blocks over what they call "Transfer of Technology" - a euphamism for "we need to be able to control the software etc."

I recall reading news articles about it but could only find these http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4807710.stm http://www.guardian.co.uk/military/story/0,,1728881,00.html


One of the concerns I recall being expressed was that it was theoretically possible for the end user to be blocked from using the weapons or other aircraft sytems, or even changing operating parameters etc.

A scenario....
Biggles gets sent in to wipe out the parsnips, destroyers of the potato patch and arch nemisis of turnips, but meantime in a galaxy far far away, the Mekon has become bosom buddies with the head Parsnip and blocks the release of the firing commands and locks all controls. Poor Biggles flies on to oblivion

 

Well, the Blokes never bitched about us having the Harrier, why should we whine about them having the keys to the JSF..

An improved jump jet is needed all round..


I am not sure it will be such a great plane anyway, keep the VTOL version and scrap the rest..

 

As much as I like the idea of NATO I feel it really has become obsolete.

 

a funny discription of NATO: "an organisation to keep the Russians out and the Americans in Europe"
well, cold war is over and besides a couple politicians, a few pieces of wall and other things, it's probably the last relic of the cold war.

 

That and the nuclear weapons the Americans still keep stored in Europe.

NATO may be a relic of the Cold War, but it is also the simplest expression of a Western world dominated militarily and politically by the United States. As such it is not outdated yet. This is what I was trying to say in my previous post as well.

 

Actually thios jsut struck me, remember those countries from Eastern Europe that joined NATO not too long ago? It just came to me they are spending billions of dollars in the American arms industry, with all the things they are buying, ie planes and other things.

 

while they could use the money to improve there economy.

hey, luckly they have the belgians. a year or two ago we sended some of our F16's to patrol above estland, letland and lithuania. since those country's didn't had good figterplanes of their own, NATO had send our planes for a while

 

What aircraft are they buying from the United States?

 

If I recall my quiz section question under aircraft my question was soemthing liek this. Poland is buying 49 (donno if thats teh number) aircraft from the US, what planes are they. I beleive they were F-15 or F-16 I really dont want to check.