NATO is the Zombie that won’t Die

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“The likely outcome of the Vilnius summit,” Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute, explains, “will be once again to dangle a never ending timetable for Kyiv’s admittance into the alliance.”

As we progress further and further into the proxy war against Russia, Ukraine’s roadmap for joining NATO grows foggier and foggier. In 2008, Ukraine was given an explicit list of steps to complete in order to gain acceptance. Today, they’re told something else:

“Ukraine can join NATO when allies agree and when certain conditions are met.”

This purposefully vague promise seems to be the West’s way of pushing off Ukraine indefinitely while still making sure that they fight to the last Ukrainian. As Lieven says: “At the very least I’d say Ukraine is just as far away as it was in 2008. The case for Ukraine’s NATO membership is the zombie that won’t die.”

At Responsible Statecraft, he writes of the danger NATO faces if they ever actually followed through on their promise: “The West will be committed to an endless strategy of arming and financing Ukraine against Russia, while praying that the United States remains fully committed to this and is not drawn away by more important domestic and international threats.”

He adds: “For if America ever does pull back, NATO’s European members may find that the only thing more stupid than pulling a bear’s tail and running away is pulling its tail when you can’t run away.”

Watch the full interview with Anatol Lieven where he explains how journalists have become part of the elite system they once reported on, the danger of Russophobia, and his fear that we’re heading towards World War III.

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