April 3 of this year marks the 75th anniversary of NATO's founding. The commemoration, as always, was held at NATO headquarters, but it felt like a hanged ghost - to die to save face.
NATO headquarters held events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its founding
Because NATO touted itself as "the most successful military alliance in history", its membership increased by 167 percent after ten rounds of expansion. However, to this day, in the case of NATO's personal end, the balance of victory in the Russian-Ukrainian war is still tilting in favor of Russia, and this process is irreversible, which cannot but be said to be a great irony of NATO's real military strength!
Of course, some people will desperately defend NATO - Ukraine has not yet joined NATO, so it is inconvenient for NATO to directly send troops to help Ukraine fight Russia.
NATO countries that joined before 1997
As the second largest country in Europe, Ukraine had a population of 41.13 million before the war (excluding the Crimea region), a high level of agricultural production, and a relatively developed industry. Moreover, Ukraine also clearly proposed to apply for NATO membership, but NATO did not dare to accept it immediately.
What's more, NATO Akari does not participate in the war, and has actually sent a large number of regular soldiers into Ukraine in the form of mercenaries, and has assisted Ukraine with a lot of funds and weapons, but it still can't stop the attack of the Russian army. Considering that in fact, before the war, the Russian ghost had already informed Britain that Russia was preparing for war, and NATO's performance in Ukraine really pulled NATO's old face down and used it as a rag.
At NATO's celebration this year, politicians were embarrassed even by the boastful remarks they made to put gold on their faces. Some military commentators in the United States and the West simply say that NATO's excessive self-aggrandizing remarks have led to the breeding of complacency within NATO, but strictly analyzed, NATO has not achieved very successful military operations.
In that year, NATO attacked the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and supported Kosovo's independence, but it did not completely subdue Serbia, and Kosovo did not become an internationally recognized sovereign entity. When NATO tried to subvert Syria, Russia intervened in time, making NATO feel powerless on the Syrian issue. When the United States had no choice but to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, NATO troops also had to flee in a hurry with the American army, not only did not defeat but strengthened the Taliban regime.
Even NATO's vaunted military operation to "decapitate" Gaddafi in Libya did not involve major ground forces and was mainly carried out by the United States, Britain and France, rather than the entire NATO. There is also no international recognition that Gaddafi's killing is a credit to NATO.
In short, NATO has not performed particularly well in all previous military operations, and the so-called glory of NATO is concealed in US military operations. It can be said that without the United States, NATO is basically nothing.
To put the numbers to the point, the United States still provides about two-thirds of NATO's total defense spending and almost all nuclear weapons, despite the fact that NATO is now so large that it involves many countries, including many developed countries. The U.S. reinforcement program for NATO was crucial to the wartime survival of many European countries.
In wartime, the United States not only has to send troops, money, and guns, but also vigorously supports NATO in key factors such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and logistics. It is estimated that if the United States withdraws from NATO by 2022, NATO members in Europe will need to invest between $288 billion and $357 billion to reach the current level of defense.
In fact, Russia, NATO's sworn enemy, has never regarded NATO as its real enemy. Russia sees NATO as just an extension of the US military in Europe. Therefore, most of the Cold War arms control agreements during the Cold War were signed directly by the Soviet Union and the United States, and had nothing to do with NATO.
On December 17, 2021, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, two "draft peace treaties" were officially proposed, the first being a treaty between Russia and the United States, the second being a treaty between Russia and NATO, and the second being subordinate to the first. If the United States does not sign the first treaty, the second treaty will not be established.
Since the United States did not take these treaties from Moscow seriously and did not intend to negotiate and sign them, Moscow did not care about NATO's attitude at all, and soon set the iron hoof of aggression on Ukrainian territory.
Of course, NATO is still rejoicing afterwards that when the Russian army has just entered Ukraine, if the Russian airborne troops soon occupy Hostomel Airport, 10 kilometers northwest of Kyiv, the Russian army's blitzkrieg is likely to be successful, and the outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict may be very different.
In fact, according to the information coming out now, at that time, I did not complain that the Russian army was weak in attacking Hostomel Airport, and the key to the Ukrainian army being able to hold this place was that the United States and Ukraine had arranged a trap here in advance, waiting for the annihilation of the occupying forces that Russia had put in. In the end, the Russian side was alert and withdrew in time.
Shortly after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Russian army left military wreckage at Hostomel airport
At present, NATO is still very troubled by what will happen to the new US president after this year's US presidential election? Will this relationship face a major adjustment?
After the U.S. election in November 2024, if Donald Trump is re-elected president, the United States and NATO will enter the most unstable state, because the merchant president will have to recalculate the gains and losses of the United States in supporting NATO, and the United States will even withdraw from NATO for this reason.
If Joe Biden is re-elected president, there will be a reduction in U.S. financial assistance for NATO operations as the United States continues to look to Asia, such as supporting the Philippines in a conflict with China in the South China Sea, which would put NATO in a dangerous position.
Not only that, once the United States is caught in the Middle East battlefield because of the Israeli factor, the United States may withdraw some troops and funds from NATO to devote itself to the Middle East war situation, and the pressure on NATO will increase suddenly.
After we have comprehensively analyzed NATO's predicament, we will naturally realize that all of NATO's problems lie in its lack of independence – from the first day of NATO's existence, NATO has been completely controlled by the United States, and NATO is actually a military puppet of the United States.
NATO does not have the decision-making power to act independently, and the ultimate fate of NATO is "the United States will succeed and the United States will lose" - NATO without the United States is like a bouquet on the second day of Valentine's Day, and the dustbin of history is its final destination.
Therefore, we can boldly predict that how the Russian-Ukrainian war will end in the future must be a model determined by direct negotiations between Russia and the United States. NATO, in the past, dared to act only after the arrangement of the United States, and now it is still like this after so many years of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Countries that joined NATO after 1997, Note: Sweden and Finland have officially joined NATO in 2023
If we look back at the 10 rounds of NATO expansion, except for a few developed countries in Western Europe at the beginning of NATO's establishment, we have not received any relatively powerful countries, and all we have received are old shoes and rotten socks thrown out by the widow of the village king. These countries really don't have any decent military alliances to accept, so they have to be packaged and accepted by NATO in order to complete the task of the United States asking NATO to expand its capacity to achieve the purpose of scaring Russia.