US newspaper names NATO countries as 'useless' militarily

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Photo: AP

In the author's opinion, there are countries in the North Atlantic Alliance whose protection is a burden for the United States and could drag Washington into wars that are disadvantageous to it. Since the mid-1990s, the United States has decided not to include Eastern European countries in the alliance. The author believes that the economic and defense potential of Albania, Slovenia, Montenegro and North Macedonia is very small, so their membership in NATO does not increase the overall strength.

According to Carpenter, expanding the US sphere of influence closer to Russia's borders was a serious mistake. As the expert notes, the Baltic states' entry into the military alliance in 2004 was an extremely dangerous step. The article writes that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania not only pursued an anti-Russian policy, but also caused friction with Belarus, Moscow's main ally in the region.

The expert stressed that the administration of US President George W. Bush tried to exploit Georgia and Ukraine militarily without thinking, and only the tough stance of France and Germany prevented the US government from granting NATO membership to these two post-Soviet republics. However, according to Mr. Carpenter, until now the US has not given up the intention to integrate Kiev and Tbilisi into the North Atlantic Alliance.

Author Carpenter concluded that the West's reckless actions showed that they had not learned anything from past mistakes and had put themselves in an extremely dangerous position that could lead to a disastrous war./.