Ask Libyans or Afghans how NATO helps

Dear editor: Statements about the lofty values and benign intent of NATO are repeated so often in popular media and by all mainstream political parties that they are supposed to be absorbed as undisputed “common sense.”

Actually, they show great contempt for the intelligence of the public.

A recent example from Stephen Fuhr, MP: “At its core, NATO remains a values-based alliance, committed to the principles of individual liberty, democracy and the rule of law.”

The very formation of NATO as a regional military alliance violated the newly minted United Nations Charter. Since then, it has become an ever-expanding U.S.-run nucleararmed global military intervention force which tries to ensure “individual liberty” for capitalist war industries, while smashing sovereignty for both member and non-member states. We should consult the citizens of Libya and Afghanistan as to the democracy and rule of law NATO has brought them.

The importance of profits is revealed in the focus on how much NATO members are paying rather than what NATO is actually doing.

Fuhr, a career militarist, suggests “that Canada do more to support the Canadian defence business sector with the goal of increasing their participation in NATO’s procurement projects.”

NATO must be dismantled because it is a tool of war and domination, because it is part of an existential nuclear threat and because it diverts public funds which should be used to confront the other an existential threat: environmental catastrophe.

We have seen escalating insecurity that comes with military alliances, arms races, military-industrial complexes and chauvinistic nationalism. This madness can only be overcome with commitments to mutual respect. We must remember the ancient truth that a person or a nation cannot be secure if their actions lead their neighbor or rival to be more fearful and insecure.

Mark Haley, Kelowna Peace Group