NATO displays self-laudatory militarism

With the exception of the hairstyle of Boris Johnson, who resigned as British prime minister on Friday, NATO leaders look alike, dress uniformly, behave in the same fashion, and speak and make decisions through their inner mental uniforms. In doing so, they have turned Europe into a dark continent of peacelessness for, most likely, decades.

The NATO leaders' inner uniforms are not worthy of words like realpolitik, proportionality, statesmanship, moderation, vision or innovation. And NATO-speak defies words such as mediation, negotiated solution, confidence-building, disarmament and arms control, common security, not to speak of reconciliation, forgiveness, cooperation, and civil conflict-resolution.

The NATO leaders seem beyond the rational, and deep into omnipotence and dangerous groupthink: We are right, have no doubts, have done nothing wrong, need not invite different views; we stand united, and our decisions will bear the desired result, because we cannot make mistakes.

But what did the recent NATO Summit in Madrid achieve? Nothing but more of the same.

In fact, NATO is a defunct, outdated provocative alliance. No new thinking, because its leaders refuse to learn any lessons, and have spent $350 billion more on military activities since 2014. Russia's annual military expenditure is $66 billion and yearly UN peacekeeping operations cost $7 billion－you get the proportions?

NATO member states' goal of spending 2 percent of GDP goal on defense is now the floor, not the ceiling. A defense expenditure ceiling, anyway, is intellectual nonsense, since a security budget is tied to threat analyses, not to the state of a country's economy. As for NATO's European members, their "rapid reaction forces" could increase from 40,000 to well over 300,000, along with new bases for thousands of permanently stationed US troops.

The 2008 NATO decision that Ukraine and Georgia shall become members is confirmed.

Ukraine, a non-NATO state which the military alliance has no legal obligations toward, has been getting weapons and other military equipment from NATO members, especially the United States. NATO has also promised membership to Ukraine, completely ignoring the vehement objections of Russia.

The US-led NATO's "operation Ukraine", in fact, began years ago, and gained pace after Washington masterminded and financed a regime change in 2014, installed a pro-US leadership and supplied weapons to Kyiv. The latter facts have been confirmed by former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko in an interview with Irish Times.

In the Ukraine conflict, the US-led NATO is fighting a proxy war against Russia, in an attempt to weaken the Russian economy and bring it down on its knees.

But even if its wish comes true, the US is not likely to sit in peace, for it has already defined China as a "strategic rival" which it will try to subdue.

Yet NATO's groupthink is at the root of the crisis, as evidenced from its move to admit Sweden and Finland as new members and further militarize the alliance despite already being, according to some experts, 12 times stronger than Russia. It is clear therefore that, instead of trying to help end the conflict, NATO is using it as a pretext for its own expansion and global dominance.

Will NATO member states ever mobilize tens of billions of dollars worth of resources to protect the environment and fight climate change, eradicate poverty, reduce illiteracy, build civil infrastructure, or contain pandemics? Your guess is as good as mine.

The West, most of them NATO members, is united－for the moment－by hatred, militarism and a complete lack of positive vision for humanity's future, depriving us of our right to and hope for a better, peaceful future.

How will those economies that were already under great strain due to the COVID-19 pandemic recover from the impacts of the Russia-Ukraine conflict? Which social classes will pay the price of NATO's folly? What social benefits will be reduced and for whom? And with NATO already spending 12 times more than Russia on "defense", will there come a point when enough will ever be enough?

How much faster and deeper will the global crises manifest themselves for the US-led West to stop this completely wasteful investment in utterly destructive militarism instead of constructive problem-solving? Even before the Ukraine crisis, the world knew that we were in the 11th hour－we either solved the problems or left it to nature.

We are now in the most dangerous, delusional times since 1949, the year NATO was established. NATO has, manifestly and consistently, shown it is incapable of maintaining, let alone restoring, peace, and instead constantly mobilized war in complete violation of its own original－meaningful and defensive－treaty.

The author is the director of Sweden-based Transnational Foundation for Peace& Future Research.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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