NATO- Not a Tenable Option (Part 3)

NATO- Not a Tenable Option (Part 3) Sally Campbell

NATO billed itself as a defender of democracy from the start, with its 12 initial members (including Canada) all democracies, despite 1/3 of them still holding onto their colonies in Africa. Members were very concerned about the communist & socialist movements that helped defeat the Nazis, and a dive into the practices of NATO in Europe in the 50’s reveals the same kind of spying, subterfuge and demonization of socialists & communists as went on during the McCarthy era in the US.

NATO itself is not democratic. Its decisions are all made behind closed doors, with no recorded votes. It is outside the structure of the UN, there are no public referenda and no avenues for input into NATO decisions. NATO is in breach of its own Charter, the UN Charter, the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The US now has nuclear weapons in 5 EU countries (NATO: What you Need to Know @ 102).

There is so much to say about NATO that I was really having trouble deciding where to focus for this week’s article. Then Canadian Foreign Policy Institute sent a link to this Petition, which says it a lot better than I can.

e-4979

Petition to the House of Commons

Whereas:

• Canada was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 and has participated in every NATO intervention;
• NATO has failed to uphold Article 1 of its charter “to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security are not endangered”;
• NATO launched illegal interventions against Yugoslavia in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, and Libya in 2011 that have caused mass civilian deaths and destruction of infrastructure with no accountability;
• According to the NATO Defence Expenditures report, Canada’s military spending has increased from $20 billion in 2014 to $39 billion in 2023, which has diverted funding away from social programs and climate action;
• Throughout the year, NATO engages in exercises and operations, which involve thousands of soldiers and vehicles that adversely impact the climate and environment;
• NATO relies on a dangerous deterrence doctrine, which risks the use of nuclear weapons;
• Canada has refused to join the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons because of NATO;
• Canada is leading NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence, a battlegroup, in Latvia and escalating conflict with Russia; and
• NATO is a U.S.-dominated military alliance that impedes Canada’s sovereignty over our defence policy and civilian control of our military.

We, the undersigned, residents of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to, call upon the House of Commons to:

1. Withdraw from NATO;
2. Remove Canadian troops from Latvia;
3. Reduce military spending; and
4. Conduct public consultations on a new foreign policy based on peace and international cooperation.

Here is the link to the Petition: sign

Please take a few minutes to reflect and consider signing this Petition! While it will not result in Canada’s leaving NATO, much as some of us may wish, it is a very valuable way to get discussion going. Given our small population, Canada has outsized capacity to influence. Our silence signals complicity and gives permission for the dangerous global military escalation occurring today. If you don’t think we’re in a dangerous place, consider that the Heads of the CIA and the UK’s MI6 recently warned that the international world order is under threat not seen since the Cold War. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gz4re394o

We need to ask: to what degree is NATO contributing to this threat rather than alleviating it? If we are going to remain in NATO, what direction do we want it to take? Why has our military budget nearly doubled in the last decade and how much of this is US/NATO pressure?

What kind of service to the world could NATO, composed of the world’s wealthiest nations (and alas, the nations most responsible for our climate crisis), actually offer and provide? NATO nations at the very least, could sign onto the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Let us think big and act boldly for peace, equality and justice. For a serious response to our climate crisis. Folks, the corporate weapons dealers, media sub-contractors and politicians are not gonna do it for us. They count on our passivity in fact. Let us bring into being the world we want. Let us model real democracy and actually have “government by the people, for the people and of the people.” That’s how I was taught democracy works; how about you?