The Incredible Shrinking NATO

Can you imagine the Brochure/Presentations that the Russians have put together? And at a fraction of the cost.  The Saudis ain't giving America the finger because they're the strongest military power on earth.   BTW...do you think Trump knew/gave the ok to take Soleimani out?  Anyway. l enjoy your work.  I quote "Work, Shop and Home" often.  Peace.

Hannibal Lector asked Clarice Starling, "What is his sin?"  Lector answered, "He covets,"

Best review of the current situation I've read - this is why I subscribed.

What I'm waiting for is for the Military Industrial Complex to reframe the debacle into "an opportunity for the active testing in a real world situation", and using this "new found knowledge" push for "new and improved" weapons systems that can "dominate in a real world scenario", ie, war with China.  More $$$ for them all!

Thanks for your excellent commentary. i am signing up to support you.

During the cold war I saw NATO as a necessary countervailing force to the Warsaw Pact, however, I felt betrayed of the promised 'Peace Dividend' when NATO continued as a tax-payer fleece when the Warsaw Pact dissolved.

I have been against NATO ever since but it has total control over media via the security services so I have never been able to vote to be rid of it. I have no reason to expect Russia to demolish it on my behalf but I can hope!

Mr. Orlov: I always enjoy your thoughts, books, articles, posts. I would love to follow you. However, living in the West, I can't find a way to subscribe and pay. I tried everything, I contacted Boosty, they said to use PayPal but it doesn't work. I speak Russian fluently and all I can do is read your posts in Russian, but they are not in sync with your English posts. Is there any way to subscribe to your blog from the West by the payment methods offered by Boosty?

Fabulous Article. 

Thank you for making this available to everyone. The Salty Army will love this piece and the bon mot that "NATO is a captive buyers' club for US-made weapons". Here's hoping you get lots of new subscribers.

Thanks for you perceptive insights into the MIC and NATO; I find reading the official documents a form of self torture, I'm glad you were able to wade through it.  It seems that every vested interest is getting into the trough, only a couple of years ago it was big pharma, so I guess the MIC was looking for its opportunity, too.  However I don't think Blackrock will be collecting.

When all the treachery is exposed to the whole world, NATO is just ... Necrotic Abscess in Terminal Obsolescence!

I've been reading you on and off since your "peak oil "and "oil drum" days! This piece is one of your best. Keep writing..

"It may be slowly dawning on some of the more lucid European leaders that a way of backing out of the Russophobic cul-de-sac, of their own creation, in which they now find themselves, must somehow be found..."
Apart from Hungary's Orban, I see no European leaders with even a modicum of lucidity in their outlook. Decades of totalitarian liberalism have seeped so deeply into the marrow of the European body-politic that I can't even imagine popular uprisings throwing up any lucid political leaders. I think the Western peninsula of the Eurasian continent will just sink into impotence and irrelevance, while Russia continues to rise with of the rise of the Global South and East (unhindered by its own liberals, who have now thankfully fled West or fallen silent).

It's always the way.  The rich sacrifice the rest for their own selfish well being.  Bring on the tumbrils!

Suicide by reality denial.  I picked up that phrase from a Club Orlov article some time back and every time I see NATO or any part of the collective West digging their hole a little deeper I think to myself: “Hmm, more suicide by reality denial.”  To me those four words sum up the Biden “presidency”, Ukraine’s “offensive”, the NATO “summit” (more like it never left Base Camp), and practically everything else that is obsessing the West.

Unfortunately for them, if anyone among them ever really examines the reality they are so desperate to deny they will come face to face with the delusional assumptions on which they’ve built their house of cards, and the whole edifice will come tumbling down.  It’s going to happen anyway; reality always wins in the end.  Just ask the ghosts of La Grande Armée and the Wehrmacht.

Great job of analysis

The US penchant for exotic hardware is an old story--anything to run up the tab, with little concern for its performance in field conditions.  Russian arms were built according to the adage "make it simple, make it cheap, make it work."  Compare the M-16 to the AK-47.  They finally fixed the jamming problem on the 16, but it took time & money & not a few lives.  The AK's  reliability is legendary.  My M-16 didn't come with a cleaning kit, either.

They will just stop talking about it completely and move on to the next thing. It would appear that that is precisely what they have been trying to do for the past year or so. Bait China, bait North Korea, bait Iran, peddle climate change, peddle Covid, pebble chimp pox, and on and on.

Perhaps the exercise is in demoralizing a population base so much there is no consequence for losing face anymore.

Just to add to the list of wander weapons use, during the aggression on Serbia in 1999, the Serbian air defences managed to shoot down F117 and B2 ‘Spirit of Missouri’ using 2nd generation Soviets NEVA air defence system putting the stake through the heart of ‘invisibility’ of the vampire.