Noam Chomsky on NATO...

Ajay0 · Mar 13, 2022

Noam Chomsky offers some penetrating insights on the nature of NATO...

Noam Chomsky Quotes About Nato | A-Z Quotes

What's the purpose of NATO? Well actually we have an official answer. It isn't publicized much, but a couple of years ago, the secretary-general of NATO made a formal statement explaining the purpose of NATO in the post-Cold War world is to control global energy systems, pipelines, and sea lanes. That means it's a global system and of course he didn't say it, it's an intervention force under US command, as we've seen in case after case. So that's NATO.

It has been known for some time that a major nuclear war might lead to nuclear winter that would destroy the attacker as well as the target. And threats are now mounting, particularly at the Russian border, confirming the prediction of George Kennan and other prominent figures that NATO expansion, particularly the way it was undertaken, would prove to be a "tragic mistake," a "policy error of historic proportions."

[Mikhail] Gorbachev said that he would agree to the unification of Germany, and even adherence of Germany to NATO, which was quite a concession, if NATO didn't move to East Germany. And [George] Bush and [James] Baker promised verbally, that's critical, verbally that NATO would not expand "one inch to the east," which meant East Germany. Nobody was talking about anything farther at the time. They would not expand one inch to the east. Now that was a verbal promise. It was never written. NATO immediately expanded to East Germany.

[Mikhail] Gorbachev complained. He was told look, there's nothing on paper. People didn't actually say it but the implication was look, if you are dumb enough to take faith in a gentleman's agreement with us, that's your problem. NATO expanded to East Germany.

Okay, NATO expanded to East Berlin and East Germany. Under [Bill] Clinton NATO expanded further, to the former Russian satellites. In 2008 NATO formally made an offer to Ukraine to join NATO. That's unbelievable. I mean, Ukraine is the geopolitical heartland of Russian concern, quite aside from historical connections, population and so on.

Right now, where do we stand? Well right at the Russian border, both sides have been taking provocative actions, both sides are building up military forces. NATO forces are carrying out maneuvers hundreds of yards from the Russian border, the Russian jets are buzzing American jets. Anything could blow up in a minute.

Around 2008 and again in 2013 NATO officially offered the Ukraine the opportunity to join NATO. That's something no Russian government is ever going to accept. It's right at the geopolitical heartland of Russia.

Right at the beginning of all of this [Ukraine to join NATO], serious senior statesmen, people like [George] Kennan for example and others warned that the expansion of NATO to the east is going to cause a disaster. I mean, it's like having the Warsaw Pact on the Mexican border. It's inconceivable. And others, senior people warned about this, but policymakers didn't care. Just go ahead.
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newbie-one · Jun 6, 2025 at 3:18 PM

a couple of years ago, the secretary-general of NATO made a formal statement explaining the purpose of NATO in the post-Cold War world is to control global energy systems, pipelines, and sea lanes
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I'd have to see the original comments and know the context to thoroughly comment on this, but this seems like something innocuous that Chomsky is reading something nefarious into.

[Mikhail] Gorbachev said that he would agree to the unification of Germany, and even adherence of Germany to NATO, which was quite a concession, if NATO didn't move to East Germany. And [George] Bush and [James] Baker promised verbally, that's critical, verbally that NATO would not expand "one inch to the east," which meant East Germany. Nobody was talking about anything farther at the time. They would not expand one inch to the east. Now that was a verbal promise.
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What I've heard is that this is not what happened. Baker had suggested the idea of non-expansion as something to be given in exchange for reunification of Germany. Bush rejected this. The final deal made with Russia was that East Germany would be allowed to reunify in exchange for billions of German Marks, and one of the provisions of the deal was that Russia explicitly agreed to NATO expansion.

Well right at the Russian border, both sides have been taking provocative actions
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As far as any notions of Russia being fearful of attack by NATO, as Polish Foreign Minister Radislaw Sikorski pointed out, Russia has pulled all of it's troops from the border with Finland, and from Kaliningrad, which shows you how worried they are about NATO invasion, in other words, not at all.

Noam Chomsky is a smart guy, but he's also a political extremist (anarchist), and is also paranoid. What he has to say about politics should be taken more seriously than what the average conspiracy theorist has to say, but not much more.

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Noam Chomsky on NATO...

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