WASHINGTON POST: After more than a year of war in Ukraine, Western European citizens are extremely wary of using military force to defend NATO allies from Russia, according to a wide-ranging opinion poll released Wednesday. The findings highlight fears among Russia’s NATO neighbors that the Western defense alliance may not be ready if put to the test.
Fewer than half of those surveyed in Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Spain supported using military force to defend NATO allies if Russia entered a serious military conflict with one of them, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found. The results came at a time of the worst tensions between Russia and the West since the Cold War, as the NATO nations that border Russia have stepped up military exercises to levels not seen in recent memory.
The NATO charter requires that member nations defend one another if one comes under attack. But the former Eastern bloc countries that joined the alliance in 2004 have long feared that their partners may not come to their aid. Leaders there say that Russia is keeping a close watch on NATO readiness… (more)
EDITOR: One thing you can always count on with the Europeans and, when it comes to the possibility war, just about everyone. You can’t count on them. We saw this in 1937 and 1938. We may well be seeing it again.
