North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Tensions are rapidly escalating between the US and Russia following last week two fly-bys when first a Russian Su-24 "buzzed" the US missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea, and just days later flew within 50 feet of a US recon plane also flying over the Baltic Sea, which some interpreted as a Russian warning to Poland. The U.S. quickly responded and complained vocally to Russia (even if Obama did not mention the incident during his phone call with Putin immediately following the incident).

Putin has announced that Russia is gearing up to take “all necessary (military) measures” to counter NATO aggression, and will not hesitate to use military force against incidents of “intimidation” such as the US naval destroyer that recently sailed close to the Russian border. Russia’s NATO Ambassador Alexander Grushko warned participants at a meeting of the military alliance, “This is about attempts to exercise military pressure on Russia. We will take all necessary measures, precautions, to compensate for these attempts to use military force“.

A group of authors claim they have evidence that proves ISIS were created by NATO and then handed over to be militarily led by Turkey, in order to destabilize the Middle East and allow Western leaders to dominate the region. According to investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, ISIS began as a rebel group under the US occupation of Iraq which then grew as they ravaged Libya and Syria. Saudi Arabia and Turkey funded the group so they could fulfil the orders coming from the US to fight proxy wars, in order to acquire oil, gas, and land for the West.

Max Boot’s argument for the importance of NATO unwittingly draws attention to one of the biggest problems with the alliance over the last two decades:

Jackson Diehl tries to blame Trump for waning Georgian interest in NATO membership:

The rhetoric from Trump has given a boost to pro-Russian parties in Georgia’s campaign. Their argument, said [President] Margvelashvili, has been consistent: “You might want NATO. You might want Europe. But it is not going to happen.” Until now, it hasn’t been a persuasive argument. Georgia’s president, and leaders like him across Eurasia, can only hope this U.S. political season does not make it so.