NATO – Page 17 – Blazingcatfur

John Robson: Gone Are the Days When Careful Thought Was Put Into Waging Just War

When the Canadian prime minister shows up at a NATO conference with empty pockets, then criticizes his allies for giving cluster munitions to Ukraine as the wrong kind of help, it’s tempting to tune him out. But just as an alcoholic might be right that you drink too much, you should sometimes read a message even while grimacing at the messenger.

Back when people made some effort to base policy on principle, they gave much thought to waging just war. And it was broadly divided into two heads in Latin because it was so long ago. (In those supposedly dirty, ignorant, vicious Middle Ages, actually.) On the one hand is ius ad bellum, justice in going to war at all. And on the other ius in bello, justice in conducting the war.

by Blazingcatfur•July 21, 2023July 20, 2023•0•"Ukraine - Russia", Canada, NATO

NATO’s broomstick army

In the good old days when you typed into Google, French military victories and pressed the ‘I’m feeling lucky’ button, the response would be, ‘Don’t you mean French military losses.’ The same could soon be said of NATO. Let’s face it, if NATO countries couldn’t even open a can of whoop-arse on the Taliban with their pimped-up Toyota Hiluxes, rusty AK-47s, and illiterate dirt farmers in sandals, how were they going to defeat the Russians? To be fair, it’s not surprising we didn’t see it coming. We are being distracted into believing men can give birth, and the world will end in a climate Armageddon. And then there was being told if we didn’t wear masks or questioned being jabbed with an untested vaccine, we were granny-killing members of QAnon.

Scary and funny and damning. Trump was right.

by Blazingcatfur•July 17, 2023July 17, 2023•0•NATO

Canada helped make NATO a political forum. Now it struggles with its own creation

Lester B. Pearson — Canada’s 14th prime minister, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Liberal icon — is most likely spinning in his grave this week.

For a number of reasons.

You probably know him as the venerated, even celebrated, architect of peacekeeping, that cherished instrument of Canadian political and foreign policy, which in the current global context seems quaint and uncomplicated.

So Pearson infected NATO with the period’s version of WOKE. I always said he was a communist.

by Blazingcatfur•July 15, 2023July 15, 2023•0•Canada, NATO

Why Canada keeps missing its NATO spending target — and why Conservatives aren’t promising to meet it

OTTAWA – NATO allies are twisting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s arm to step up and invest more in defence. The Wall Street Journal on Thursday slammed Canada as a “military free-rider in NATO” in a scathing editorial, calling its contribution to the alliance, currently estimated at 1.29 per cent of its GDP, “pathetic.”

They all might be surprised to learn that the man who hopes to replace him, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, hasn’t committed to achieving NATO’s spending targets of two per cent of GDP if he replaces Trudeau as prime minister.

by Blazingcatfur•July 14, 2023July 14, 2023•0•Canada, NATO

Canada Is a Military Free-Rider In NATO

Ottawa still spends only a pathetic 1.38% of GDP on defense.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Lithuania this week for the annual NATO summit, but it’s too bad there wasn’t a junior table where he could sit. That’s where his country belongs based on Ottawa’s feeble commitment to alliance defense.

In 2014 all NATO members agreed to spend 2% of GDP on defense by 2024. Eleven out of 31 countries now make it, but Canada still isn’t close at 1.38%. That’s up from 1.01% in the nine years since 2014, but it still falls between those exemplars of muscular self-defense Italy (1.46%) and Slovenia (1.35%).

by Blazingcatfur•July 13, 2023July 13, 2023•0•Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Tasha Kheiriddin: Goodwill from NATO allies running out for Trudeau

As NATO leaders meet in Vilnius this week, the big news is that Sweden is finally going to join the club. After over a year of resistance, Turkey dropped its opposition and agreed to let the Nordic national become the 32nd member of the defense pact. Sweden isn’t over the finish line yet but is expected to finalize its status soon, adding additional heft together with NATO’s other new member, Finland.

by Blazingcatfur•July 12, 2023July 11, 2023•0•Canada, NATO

John Robson: NATO Pressure Won’t Stop Canada’s Free-Riding on US Defence Spending

According to a newspaper, not this one, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attends the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week “pressure will be on” to make a meaningful contribution to the alliance. Pressure being a colourless, odourless gas whose only known effect is to cause journalists to write headlines.

We’ve been free-riding on American defence spending since Trudeau Sr. scorned “pressure” to be less of a frivolous peacenik. No matter who’s in power, usually the Liberals, we never reached our oft-promised 2 percent of GDP on defence, mostly because we never tried. Nor will we.

by Blazingcatfur•July 11, 2023July 10, 2023•0•Canada, NATO

As NATO firms up military spending target, Canada is trying to broaden what counts: sources

Canada has quietly and consistently lobbied major NATO allies for months to expand the definition of what it can include under the military alliance’s defence spending benchmark, defence and government sources have told CBC News.

The notion of being able to include what the country spends on space, cyber and artificial intelligence (AI) research has been an important topic of conversation, particularly with the United States, said two sources with knowledge of the discussions.

CBC News is not identifying the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Trudeau’s Newly announced plan to add 1,200 troops in Latvia could take 3 years to complete – not enough Trannies to go round?

h/t Canucklehead

by Blazingcatfur•July 10, 2023July 10, 2023•0•"CAF - Canadian Armed Forces", "Canada - Security Risk Under Liberal Party Regime", NATO

U.K. defence secretary urges Canada to hit NATO military spending target

Britain’s defence secretary delivered a polite but pointed reminder Thursday of NATO’s expectations of its member states — including Canada — when it comes to defence spending.

And Ben Wallace did it in front of his Canadian counterpart, Defence Minister Anita Anand.

The two met in London as part of Anand’s visit to the United Kingdom this week ahead of the July 11-12 NATO leaders’ summit in Vilnius — where the issue of defence investments is expected to be a major topic of discussion.

by Blazingcatfur•June 30, 2023June 29, 2023•0•Canada, NATO

Canada has a weak excuse for missing NATO’s largest-ever training exercise

NATO is currently wrapping up its largest-ever air defence exercise, and Canada is notably absent.

The 11-day event, Air Defender 23, is taking place in the skies over Germany. Twenty-five nations are participating – 23 NATO members, one NATO hopeful (Sweden) and Japan. More than 250 aircraft and 10,000 troops are involved. Planning began four years ago, after Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

by Blazingcatfur•June 23, 2023June 22, 2023•0•Canada, NATO

NATO vs. Canada, its nicest truant

Canada is a committed, agreeable ally. So why, NATO countries are wondering, is it not getting up to speed on spending targets?

BRUSSELS/OTTAWA — NATO loves Canada — but hates its defense spending.

The North American country has a reputation within the West’s military alliance as an agreeable partner: Reliably committed to transatlantic relations, never obstructionist, and, well, just pleasant to work with.

But with a war on, that’s not enough.

by Blazingcatfur•June 17, 2023June 17, 2023•0•Canada, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

Sweden: Anti-NATO, Anti-Terror Law Demonstrations Take Place in Stockholm

Two weeks after Bulgarian protestors vandalized an EU building in the capital city of Sofia during the anti-NATO March for Peace and Neutrality, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Stockholm over the weekend to protest Sweden’s NATO bid and new anti-terror legislation, meant to address Ankara’s stated reasons for opposing Sweden’s accession into NATO.

by Blazingcatfur•June 6, 2023June 5, 2023•0•"Islamophobia", Islam, Islam and violence, Islamization of the West, NATO, Sweden

NATO chief not denying Trudeau said Canada won’t ever meet defence spending target

OTTAWA – NATO’s Secretary General is not denying that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau privately told the alliance Canada will never meet a defence spending target of two per cent of GDP.

“I’m talking and I’m consulting and I’m meeting with heads of state and government, prime ministers and presidents, across the lines almost every week,” Jens Stoltenberg said in a Canadian exclusive interview on CTV’s Power Play with Vassy Kapelos Tuesday. “There’s no way I can continue to sit down, discuss, with them if I start to report from each and every of those conversations.”

by Blazingcatfur•May 17, 2023May 16, 2023•0•Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government, NATO

How Nato seduced the European Left

The anti-war movement has fallen for a progressive circus

In January 2018, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg held an unprecedented press conference with Angelina Jolie. While InStyle reported that Jolie “was dressed in a black off-the-shoulder sheath dress, a matching capelet and classic pumps (also black)”, there was a deeper purpose to this meeting: sexual violence in war. The pair had just co-authored a piece for the Guardian entitled “Why NATO must defend women’s rights”. The timing was significant. At the height of the #MeToo movement, the most powerful military alliance in the world had become a feminist ally. “Ending gender-based violence is a vital issue of peace and security as well as of social justice,” they wrote. “NATO can be a leader in this effort.”

by Blazingcatfur•May 16, 2023May 16, 2023•0•NATO

NATO’s 2 per cent military spending benchmark is ‘self-evident’: Finnish president

The president of NATO’s newest member nation said the military alliance’s two per cent defence spending target seems “self-evident” to him — even as a debate rages over the fact that most NATO members, Canada included, are not meeting the target.

In an interview airing Sunday on Rosemary Barton Live, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the Nordic country is committed to its current level of defence spending — around two per cent of GDP. NATO members pledged in 2006 to spend two per cent of their national GDP on defence.

“I think that it’s self-evident … To me, as a Finn, we usually do what we agree [to do],” Niinistö told host Rosemary Barton.

Not evident to Junior.

by Blazingcatfur•May 7, 2023May 7, 2023•0•NATO