Anachronistic NATO aims at Russia and neglects terrorism

Ennio Remondino is an Italian retired journalist of RAI, the national broadcasting corporation. War-correspondent, he's an expert of Balkans, Middle-East and the connection between Italian mafia with masonry. He writes about NATO's current policy...

NATO's vertices change the Supreme Commander, obviously American, Italian-American to be exact, Curtis Scaparroti, but not the music changes: Russia as a key opponent inherited from the Soviet Union. The Super General, from Puglia (from Orsara of Puglia, in province of Foggia), in turn inherits from his predecessor Philip Breedlove, very lined up on Ukraine crisis. In Scaparroti military dowry you find the proposal to create a contingent of four allied battalions (4,000 men) to be deployed in Poland and the Baltic States in response to the established 'muscle performance by Putin along the eastern outskirts of the Alliance'.

The real news

But the real news, the one, moves between the 'technicians' of military things. In fact it increases the number of professional soldiers  - speak only those at rest, of course - critical compared to a reading of the threats a lot/too much American conditioned by old anti-Russian fears/preventions from part of the former Soviet satellite countries.

Among the most influential critics, General Leonardo Tricarico, former Chief of Staff of the Italian Air Force, former Military Advisor of the President of the Council of Ministers (1999-2004) and current president of ICSA Foundation, here in an analysis about the future of NATO on Askanews picked up by Defense Analysis.

Tricarico straight on the target

"Unless you really knew what and where are the real threats to security and stability of the Euro-Atlantic area, it would have to smile. It is a strange behavior the one held by the US in the last six or seven years."

"On the one hand they do not miss a chance to demonstrate, too much clearly, impatience with the unfair sharing of the burden in NATO, which they say would be borne on the shoulders of US taxpayers disproportionately. But on the other hand, they highlight, now so unacceptable, the pressure on allies to be the instrument of a policy that smells of stale: Cold War scenarios from time to time re-proposed by resort to a still undisputed dominant position."

So, a NATO which remains anchored to a Cold War scenario?

"This is just the latest episode in a script that goes way back, a sort of muffled call of the wild in which the Russian bear is the number one enemy, to which should never be lowered our guard. A policy that find particularly sensitive ears (or perhaps originates?) in the countries that once belonged to the Soviet Union sphere ... In this framework are born out-and-out provocations, which only fortunately have not yet triggered a real escalation but have serious consequences in the confused, and that yes seriously, international scenario."

The consequence of all this? 

"Firstly, NATO pays scant attention to terrorism. Yet the US had joined the NATO-Russia Council in Pratica di Mare in 2002, set up just to fight terrorism together, didn't? Today, obviously far since 2001 not only in the chronological sense, they do everything to irritate the Russian partners, of which they have desperate need on other negotiating tables having ultimately so much to ask swallowing giant toads. In the face of all this, one wonders what is the Italian policy within the Alliance."

The 'mysterious' Italian position to be deducted through the bold statements of Minister Roberta Pinotti.

What the true Italian positions? Tricarico confirms himself fighter pilot

"Silence in the face of the latest US sorties would seem a consent to the line indicated by them, based on strengthening the northwestern side for the containment of an increasingly threatening Putin. But really is this the Italian vision? Or should we say to the US, once and for all, that if they want to deploy their troops in a fearful and complacent northern country, they seek the resources at home without putting amid NATO? It is the time to close the door to new initiatives, especially those that Putin perceived as a threat to his security, isn't it?".

A NATO that increases the capacity to defeat terrorism, to curb the mass murderer madness, "instead of making the world believe that the enemy is Russia", is the proposal of the Italian general.

Final Policy Proposal

"This time we do not need a European policy to jam the mechanism of a Europe of the north under US influence and a North-South dialogue Alliance always unheeded. It would be enough that in the next NATO ministerial council one country asked, even aloud, to restore the balance in a Europe which, although disunited, needs no external constraints nor to relegate in a corner Russia, with which we want to measure ourselves with our forces, our evaluations and our interests. It is too much to hope that Italy will do it with the same vigor with which she are fighting for just as important causes such as immigration emergency and investment for employment?".

Who is the General and what is ICSA

The general, in addition to military duties had an extensive and significant political experience. Military advicer to three Presidents of the Council (D'Alema, Amato and Berlusconi). He is currently president of ICSA Foundation. And here it becomes useful to deepen.

I.C.S.A Foundation: Intelligence Culture and Strategic Analysis

The Foundation was founded in 2009 from an idea of President Francesco Cossiga, enthusiast about Intelligence and issues related to technology and security, and finds its realization with Marco Minniti, now under-secretary of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers with responsibility for Intelligence. Marco Minniti has obviously abandoned any formal role in the Foundation.

Translated by Costantino Ceoldo

Original article in Italian:

Mr. Ennio Remondino is an Italian retired journalist of RAI, the national broadcasting corporation. War-correspondent, he's an expert of Balkans, Middle-East and the connection between Italian mafia with masonry. He has a personal blog and pages on Facebook.

My interview with him on Pravda about Balkans War: