RUSSIA'S BELLIGERENCE: MAKES NATO IMPERATIVE AND MORE RELEVANT NOW THAN EVER.

ICHEOKU says some school of thought would say why not just disband NATO and end all the crisis between the West and Russia, as that would assure Russia that the West has no bad intentions towards Moscow. And yes, while there may be some argument in favor, since the primary reason for setting up the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was to provide one canopy security for all its members, such that an attack on one will be deemed as an attack on all, triggering a collective response, but Russia is not making such an option feasible. 

It is a fact that disbanding NATO would be the quickest and best way to end the constant threats and face-offs between the West and Russia, but it is not going to be possible because Russia has refused to create a conducive environment for it. Russia's near permanent bellicose disposition towards its neighbors, particularly the former Soviet Union countries, is a factor militating against disbanding NATO. These countries are in constant fear that their found freedom will be taken away by a Russian invasion.

This explains their frantic clamor for the membership of NATO to provide them the much needed security guarantees and protection that Moscow will never swallow them up again. Russia will do it if allowed as there is no country in the world, except for maybe China in relation to Taiwan, whose neighbors are constantly on edge about what their big brother neighbor might do to them as Russia. Russia's neighboring countries are frightened and worried sick over the ever threatening Russian invasion. 

Georgia is under the dark cloud of a possible Russian invasion and has suffered such before when it lost its two cities of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Ukraine too, which is still suffering from a Russia proxy war in Eastern Donetsk region of Donbas. It also lost its city of Crimea from a Russian military skirmish and is currently under the threat of another Russian invasion. If Russia could be this hostile to its neighbors, imagine what they would have since done to them as well as other smaller countries in Europe, if not for America and/or NATO deterrence. 

It does not make any sense whatsoever that President Vladimir Putin is screaming his lungs out against NATO and protesting that former Soviet Union countries should not be allowed to join NATO, when he is the reason for the season. He is the provocateur of both NATO and these countries' pursuit of their respective objectives. If he did not scare these countries away and still threaten them, with fear of invasion and forcible annexation hovering over them, NATO will not be triggered and neither would these countries be desperately seeking refuge in NATO. 

Having a peaceful neighbor is the reason there is no Russian or Chinese military base anywhere in Mexico or Canada because both countries do not feel threatened by America nor are they living in constant fear of being invaded and their territories seized or annexed by their more powerful neighbor, America. There is also no tension in the North American region or within their respective borders; and except for illegal immigration and drug smuggling, the three North American countries are enjoying a very peaceful co-existence as any good neighbors would ever expect. 

President Vladimir Putin has no clean hands in the current crisis, in fact, he caused it by amassing thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border. He can end the crisis today by withdrawing those troops, but he chose not; and would rather flex his military muscle to extort concessions from the West. His demands that NATO cease and desist from its eastward advance and that the former Soviet Union countries seeking membership of NATO must not be allowed to join NATO, is simply an extortion. The West must therefore not give in to them nor even negotiate with him, with his  loaded gun still pointed on Ukraine's head. 

He is demanding security guarantees from NATO but he is not willing to give similar security guarantees to his neighbors, in order to assure them that he will never attack or invade them or forcibly seize their cities and annex their territories. How about Putin practicing what he is  preaching by showing examples of it, by giving security guarantees to these countries so that his "Russia will not invade Ukraine" words will have some weight to it. And for a man who has invaded both Ukraine and Georgia before, his word that Russia is not planning an invasion of Ukraine falls flat and is not even worth the airtime given to it. 

To trust President Vladimir Putin on this issue of Russia not invading Ukraine is too risky a proposition, and relying on it is a bad platform for anyone to be on now. Rather, preparation for a full blown out war is the right strategy for the West and NATO to be taking now, simultaneously as the Russians are doing. It is about time the forever looming war is finally fought and got over with for good. The Cold War lasted for far too long and any resulting Hot War will not last as long. Both sides have been  spending trillions of dollars developing and manufacturing weapons; and now might be time to infact use them and fight and kill each other.

Africa, the Middle-east and Latin America have seen their fair share of carnage from these Western and Russian made weapons; so can the brewers now taste their potion? It cannot just be these other places which neither develop nor manufacture weapons that are constantly suffering the destruction caused by these weapons. Moreso, a war in Europe is almost long overdue and it will also be a good means to expend the stockpiled weapons on both sides, as their armies know best how to effectively use them to cause maximum casualty and destruction. So, if Putin wants war, let him have war. It will be the real mother of all wars, unlike the Saddam Hussein bogus one; and it will also end the incessant threats coming out of Moscow.