Tag: NATO

Thousands of Migrants Stuck in Between Belarus and Poland as Tensions Flare

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Thousands of migrants are stranded at the Belarus-Poland border, with Belarus and Russia performing military demonstrations amid rising tensions in the region, CNN reported Friday.

Up to 2,000 people are trapped between Poland and Belarus, enduring hunger and hypothermia in the freezing forests and camps along the border, CNN reported. The number of migrants at the border has the potential to grow to 10,000 people in the near future if the situation doesn’t change, according to Belarusian authorities.

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‘You Broke the Military’: Milley, Austin Set for Second Congressional Grilling on Afghanistan

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Top American military leaders are set for another round of intense congressional grilling on Wednesday, following a day-long Tuesday session that at times featured blistering criticism of their part in the U.S. exit from Afghanistan.

The Tuesday hearing placed on the griddle Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; U.S. Central Command Chief Gen. Frank McKenzie; and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

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Commentary: This Horrible Fiasco Demands Change

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It might seem that there is little to be added to what the whole world has witnessed viewing the unutterable shambles of the U.S. departure from Afghanistan. But that would be an illusion. The story of the perilous departure from Afghanistan of NATO forces and civilians and their Afghan collaborators who are now in mortal danger is obviously a matter of great suspense. The United States could certainly tell the Taliban government of Afghanistan that if all those whom the Western powers wished to evacuate were not allowed to leave it would be an act of war. If there were the will to act on that ultimatum, it would be successful.

But under the circumstances, the credibility of such a threat would probably have to be proved by acting on it. As some commentators have mentioned, this would be morally justified and is morally required and the administration would simply have to accept that it has bungled the withdrawal, and must execute an immediate but brief return. The Biden Administration, after seven months, has shown no competence whatever in foreign or national security policy.

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Twitter Bans Nearly 400 Accounts for Allegedly ‘Undermining NATO’

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On Tuesday, Big Tech giant Twitter announced that it had banned approximately 373 accounts for allegedly posting content that “undermined faith in the NATO alliance and its stability,” as reported by Breitbart.

Twitter claimed that the accounts in question were part of “state-linked information operations” that were supposedly linked to the governments of Russia, Iran, and Armenia. Of the 373, 130 were targeted “based on intel provided by the FBI” that claimed the accounts had attempted to “disrupt the public conversation during the first 2020 U.S. presidential debate.”

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Trump Pulls Out of Military Transparency Treaty with Russia, Europe

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The Trump administration officially withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty, a 2002 agreement to promote military transparency signed by more than 30 countries including Russia.

The Department of State said Sunday that the U.S. had officially withdrawn from the Open Skies Treaty, which went into effect nearly two decades ago. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both announced on May 21 that the U.S. intended to exit the agreement, according to The Associated Press.

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Commentary: Trump Does Not Threaten Europe’s Sovereignty, He Asks Them to Embrace It

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For a perfect illustration of Europe’s collapse as a serious political force, one could do no better than to read a February 27 article by former German Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. In “The West’s Final Countdown,” Fischer warns the U.S. presidential election in November “will have an overwhelming and decisive impact on the future” of all of Western Europe and of the West generally. So far, so clichéd.

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Commentary: Turkey’s Invasion of Syria Tests NATO Alliance, Advises Caution

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On Oct. 6, the Office of the White House Press Secretary released a statement that after a telephone conversation by President Donald Trump with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that “Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria. The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial ‘Caliphate,’ will no longer be in the immediate area.”

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Survey Shows Less Than Half of Americans Support NATO

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A new survey shows that less than half of Americans support the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an alliance originally designed to provide collective security against the Soviet Union, but now focused on Russia and non-state actors such as the Taliban and the Islamic State group. The YouGov survey, released to commemorate the 70th anniversary of NATO, found that only 44 percent of Americans support the United States’ place in the agreement. That was down 3 percentage points from when the survey was conducted in 2017. The poll also surveyed other NATO countries and found that support for the alliance had decreased significantly in the past two years among key European allies. Support for NATO dropped in Britain from 73 percent to 59 percent, in Germany from 68 percent to 54 percent, and in France from 54 percent to 39 percent. YouGov said there is a generational divide in the United States over support for NATO, with 56 percent of the Baby Boomer generation, who grew up at the beginning of the Cold War, believing that the treaty continues to serve an important role in defending Western nations. Only 35 percent of Millennials and 33 percent of Generation X members support…

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SURVEY: NATO Countries Want US Help but They Don’t Want to Help the US

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by Mary Margret Olohan   A survey released Thursday reveals that while the majority of NATO members are content to rely on the American military for defense, they may not be willing to reciprocate and assist the United States. According to The Charles Koch Institute, the survey was conducted by YouGov and released by both the Charles Koch Institute and RealClearPolitics. The survey polled citizens of the United States, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom and Germany in honor of NATO‘s 70th-anniversary on April 4. The survey also found NATO members are unsure that military intervention in Afghanistan has been successful. “People in key European NATO countries seem to want the military benefits of the alliance but aren’t so excited about meeting its most important obligations,” said Vice President of Research and Policy at the Charles Koch Institute, William Ruger. “While they are happy to have the U.S. come to their defense, a striking number of respondents thought it would be bad to be asked to assist the U.S. if it were attacked.” Our new survey with @RealClearNews, conducted by @YouGov, polled citizens of the United States, Turkey, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany in advance of #NATO’s 70th anniversary. Learn…

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Rep. Green Files Bill to Require Defense Department to Resume Sending Congress Report on Defense Spending by U.S. Allies

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Rep. Dr. Mark Green (R-TN-07) said he is working to strengthen the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and America’s other treaty alliances by trying to make clear how much allies spend on the common defense. Green, a former Army special operations flight surgeon and West Point graduate, introduced the Allied Burden Sharing Report Act of 2019 in the U.S. House on Wednesday, according to a press release. Green introduced this bill the same day NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addressed a joint session of Congress ahead of NATO’s 70th anniversary, which is today. “NATO is indispensable to America’s past, present, and future,” said Rep. Mark Green. “This bill would encourage our allies to fully fund our alliance, so that together we can preserve, strengthen and potentially expand NATO.” The congressman tweeted, “I am looking forward to #NATO Sec Gen Stoltenberg’s address to Congress at 11. NATO is indispensable to America’s past, present, and future. That’s why I’m intro’ing a bill today that’d encourage our allies to fully fund our alliance and strengthen NATO.” I am looking forward to #NATO Sec Gen Stoltenberg's address to Congress at 11. NATO is indispensable to America’s past, present, and future. That's why I'm…

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Commentary: Retreat, Regroup, and Reinvest in a Realist Foreign Policy

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by Christopher Roach   Donald Trump’s administration has allowed the United States to renegotiate its orientation to the rest of the world. Partisans have sniped in contradictory ways, criticizing him both as a warmonger and a naïve peacenik, but they rarely offer thoughtful alternatives to the course Trump has taken. Trump’s foreign policy has two sides, both of which are radical departures from the recent past. He has embraced foreign policy minimalism, whether in the Middle East or with regard to long term commitments like NATO. At the same time, Trump has undone inertia and pursued confrontation, whether in the war of words with North Korea’s leader in 2017 or in the application of tariffs against China, long the fair-haired child of the foreign policy establishment. President Trump rightly pointed out during the 2016 campaign what a disaster the Iraq War had been and explicitly rejected the regime-change policies of his predecessors. He also signaled a willingness to have warmer relations with Russia, which the foreign policy leaders of both parties oppose out of habit and opposition to that country’s cultural conservatism. Trump, however, sometimes disappoints the peace camp. He bombed the Syrian regime in 2017 for its alleged use…

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Pompeo Warns Central European Allies Over Russia, China Ties

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned during a trip to NATO allies Slovakia and Hungary that Russia and China are trying to fill a political vacuum in central Europe caused by what he described as the United States’ absence in the region over recent years. Arriving Tuesday in Bratislava, Pompeo said the United States had been a friend through three decades of post-Soviet independence. The warm sentiments echoed those given to Hungary during a visit Monday to Budapest, where he urged his Hungarian counterpart to offer more support to Kyiv following Russia’s forced annexation of Crimea and invasion of eastern Ukraine. “I spoke with the foreign minister about the urgent importance of supporting Ukraine in its quest for sovereignty and territorial integrity. We must not let [Russian President Vladimir] Putin drive wedges between friends and NATO. Hungarians know all too well from their history that an authoritarian Russia will never be a friend to the freedom and sovereignty of smaller nations,” said the top U.S. diplomat. Budapest is often accused by allies of being too close to Russia. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has regularly visited Putin in Moscow, while Russia is set to build two nuclear reactors in…

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House Votes Overwhelmingly to Prohibit Exit From NATO

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The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill affirming congressional support for NATO, amid renewed concerns over President Donald Trump’s commitment to the 29-member alliance. The bipartisan NATO Support Act, which forbids the use of funds to withdraw from the alliance and states that it is U.S. policy to remain part of the alliance, passed by a 357-22 vote. Beside asserting Congress’s control over the money, the bill reaffirms U.S. backing of NATO and its mutual defense clause. It also voices support for Montenegro, its newest member, and for “robust” U.S. funding for the European Deterrence Initiative, and for the goal that each alliance member spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by 2024. Just hours before the vote, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell, the top U.S. diplomat to Europe and an outspoken NATO supporter, tendered his resignation amid strained ties in trans-Atlantic relations. The House vote and Mitchell’s resignation come amid tensions with European leaders over Washington’s commitment to NATO and transatlantic ties in general. The New York Times, citing federal government sources, recently reported that Trump put forward the idea of withdrawing the United States from…

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Trump Divides Nation, Hurts Foreign Relations, Corker Says

Jason M. Reynolds

Surprise, surprise. Retiring U.S. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) used some of his final moments in office to criticize President Donald Trump. The former Chattanooga mayor, who is leaving the U.S. Senate in January, delivered his latest missive against the president in the Chattanooga Times Free Press. The story is available here. Corker, who served as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, told the newspaper that the president’s governing model “is based upon division, anger and resentment, and in some cases, even hate.” “He is able to keep his base together by his approach and instead of appealing to our better angels and trying to unite us like most people would try to do, the president tries to divide us,” Corker said. “There’s just no reason for it, and it doesn’t take us to a better place to squander the well-earned good will that we have around the world at a time when our leadership is more important than ever.” The Tennessee Star has reported on Corker’s past attacks against Trump, including criticism in August over the president’s removal of former CIA Director John Brennan’s security clearance as “kind of a banana republic kind of thing.” In July, Corker criticized Trump’s…

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Trump to Germany: Don’t Give Russia More Weapons

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Angela Merkel, Vladimir Putin

By Sheryl Kaufman   The press and former CIA Director John Brennan are expressing hysterics over a press conference where President Trump disappointed them by not showering outright insults on the Russian President. The reporters moved past what may be the most significant development of Mr. Trump’s very busy trip to Europe, what they read at the time as an insult to Germany. Last Wednesday at the NATO summit, President Trump spoke against the proposed expansion of the natural gas pipeline from Russia directly to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The Nord Stream 2 project has nearly completed permitting and is set to begin laying pipe later this year. It will run parallel an existing nearly 800-mile undersea pipeline and double the capacity of Russia to move gas directly to Germany. About a third of Europe’s natural gas is currently supplied by Russia. The new pipeline would allow Russia to expand its dominant position as an energy supplier to Europe and give it flexibility to bypass an onshore pipeline that passes through Ukraine, Slovakia, and Czech Republic to Germany. That would deprive these countries of transit fees, but more significantly it would allow Russia greater control of their energy supplies.…

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Trump’s Broadside Against Germany at NATO Finds Some Republican Support

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NATO allies

Reuters   They might not have agreed with the U.S. president calling Germany a “captive” of Russia, but some Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said they believe Donald Trump is right to shame one of America’s most important allies into spending more on defense. The Republican president, in Brussels for the NATO summit, took a swipe at Germany for supporting a new pipeline for Russian gas, saying at a pre-summit meeting: “We’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.” Trump kept up his assault on NATO members, particularly Germany, for failing to spend a target two percent of national income on defense, a goal they must meet by 2024. He told fellow leaders he would prefer a 4 percent target, closer to the 3.6 percent of GDP the United States spends on defense. While Democratic congressional leaders condemned Trump’s attacks on Germany as “brazen insults and denigration of one of America’s most steadfast allies,” Republicans took a more benign view, and some backed him outright. “I think the president is right to raise the issue of whether they’re meeting their responsibilities to NATO and whether they are…

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Dr. Mark Green Commentary: It’s Time for NATO to Draw a Line in the Sand in Ukraine

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Mark Green

by Dr. Mark Green, Tennessee State Senator and Candidate for Congress   Today starts the annual NATO Summit with President Trump in attendance. Founded in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been one of the most effective alliances in history, from standing against the Soviet Union to cooperating fully in the War on Terror. When in Iraq and Afghanistan, I served alongside British Special Operations Soldiers deployed as a joint special operations task force. In one firefight my aircraft hauled off three wounded British Special Operators. It was a rewarding experience and reinforced the link between NATO countries. The challenges facing NATO today are no less strenuous than at the organization’s founding. The primary protagonist, Russia, seeks to recreate the power and influence of the former Soviet Union. Nowhere is this more prominent than in Ukraine, where as many as 12,000 Russian soldiers work with separatist to destabilize the country, where Ukrainian Defense leadership asserts Russia shelled Ukrainian positions over 15,000 times in 2017, and where Russian hybrid warfare focuses on shifting public opinion. Perhaps the most egregious act was the illegal and forced annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. NATO has a significant relationship with Ukraine: “Ukraine joined the…

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NATO Countries’ Spending Record Improves as President Trump Heads to Annual Summit

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Donald Trump

Reuters   President Trump is poised to demand again that Europe and Canada raise defense spending at a two-day NATO summit in Brussels from Wednesday, even as billions more dollars are being pledged for allied militaries. NATO agreed in 2014 that each member state would boost military spending to 2 percent of its gross domestic product by 2024, and cumulative expenditure by Europe and Canada has risen by almost $90 billion since 2015. But only two-thirds of the 28 allies, excluding the United States, have a realistic plan to hit the 2-percent level in 2024, NATO diplomats say. The United States spent 3.57 percent of GDP on defense in 2017. However, European officials say while U.S. defense spending makes up 70 percent of combined allied governments’ military budgets, just 15 percent of U.S. expenditure is spent in Europe on NATO-related defense. Washington pays about 22 percent of the running cost of NATO, including the headquarters and commonly-funded equipment such as AWACS surveillance planes. Here is a rundown of the best and worst performers, based on North Atlantic Treaty Organization data. Top of the class BRITAIN has maintained its defense spending at just above 2 percent for several years and is set…

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