NATO without America

Thanks to Sir Winston, Churchill is well aware of why there is a North Atlantic Alliance: to involve Americans, to keep Russians away and press the Germans. In connection with the events that happened in the last twenty years, the last two tasks of NATO have lost relevance. Germany has become the basis of the European Union, and all the countries of the Old World simply dream that Berlin take as much responsibility as possible. Russia has long been a threat to Europe. Cooperation with Moscow is vital for NATO to successfully complete the operation in Afghanistan.

And now we are observing how the third task formulated by Churchill becomes unattainable: in military terms, the United States move away from Europe. In Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, the United States played a leading role in the operations of the North Atlantic Alliance. However, there are cases when Washington could not achieve the consent of all NATO countries to participate in the US military operation. And then the States acted at the same time those who supported them, without the NATO "umbrella". So it was, for example, in Iraq. But now, during the operation in Libya, for the first time in the history of NATO, a military operation in which the United States deliberately decided to play a secondary role.

Currently, American aircraft is not involved in Kaddafi’s power. The actions of the US Armed Forces are limited to exploration, suppressing the enemy command and communications systems. The results were not slow to affect. President Obama recently stated that the operation in Libya has come to a dead end. In fact, NATO states drove themselves into a trap last year. When a new strategy of the Alliance was accepted at the summit in Lisbon, which insisted: “Where measures to prevent the conflict will be unsuccessful, NATO will be ready and able to regulate the ongoing military operations. NATO has unique means of conflict regulation, including a single one of a kind, the ability to deploy and ensure powerful military forces in the war zone. ” Thus, the alliance countries, passionate about the search for a new role of NATO (when the need to contain the USSR has long disappeared), willy-nilly took the obligation to intervene in every internal conflict.

I had to pay for the ambitions soon: unrest began in the countries of the Great Middle East. In some states, the dictators left almost without B O I, in others they managed to maintain power. But only in Libya did the situation have developed when the dictator was forced to begin to widely use military force against his own people. If the NATOs ignored the calls of the opposition for help, they would look, to put it mildly, strange.

At the same time, Washington did not want to climb into this, the third war for him. But under the pressure of the US allies, they led the operation at the first stage. They launched about a hundred cruise missiles, inflicted missile and bombing at the Kaddafi air defense objects. And then the command was transferred to NATO. That is, in fact - the united command of the US forces in Europe. However, this meant that Washington evaded liability for the outcome of the operation. What immediately affected her course.

All twenty years after the collapse of the USSR, one of the intellectual exercises of Western European military analysts and politicians, discussions about how NATO might look without American participation. There were endless disputes about the European basis of NATO, the European forces of quick deployment, which would come to business when the United States cannot or did not want to participate in a particular military operation.

And now in Libya you can observe what the NATO military operation is not headed by Washington. If the operation in Afghanistan in 2001 was conducted by 300 combat aircraft, then against the troops of Gaddafi are fighting for 70 strength. It is obvious that the shock-reconnaissance system, including a powerful satellite grouping, unmanned flying devices and aircraft carrying high-precision weapons, does not work. In Afghanistan, about 10 minutes passed from the detection of the target to destruction. In Libya, due to the detachment of the United States for the operation, it takes about an hour and a half.

The fact remains - the massive use of military force has not yet happened. The colonel’s forces are not demoralized, Gaddafi took advantage of this. During the month of moderate bombing strength, his troops are accustomed to them. Blows from the air no longer cause horror. But even if they would bring the result, and the Army of Gaddafi would run, who would occupy the abandoned territories, who would play the role of the so -called “surrogate troops”? In Afghanistan, this function was performed by the formation of the Northern Alliance, the Anti -Titelib Union of Field commanders, who were armed with Russia and who were commanded by American Green Berets. Now in NATO tedious arguing about whether weapons should be supplied to the rebels. At the same time, from France, which actually headed the operation, calls are heard to expand special forces in Libya, which at least could adjust the air strikes. However, it is obvious: without America, a terrestrial operation will not work, as it did not work out.

The last two decades, those who have been called the domestic elite clearly suffered from the inferiority complex: America remained the only superpower. And now it turns out: superpowering is a cross, from which even the richest country in the world cannot get rid of. Maybe you should not strive for it?