U.S.' NATO hyprocisy

Photo: Globe and Mail

This week, media coverage turned to NATO meetings where the U.S. was asking the alliance to increase contributions.

For an armchair observer, the metrics can be confusing, as Canada was lambasted for its ridiculously low contributions.

But one only had to look at the contributions of other member nations to realize Canada's contributions matched the relative populations and recognize that in one sense, there is a balance.

What is also interesting is that the NATO alliance was formed during the Cold War, no doubt with a lot of pressure from the U.S. for Europe to essentially act as an early warning system for American security.

Today, the discussion is about imbalance of contributions. However, perhaps to a large extent, Europe has paid its price.

Thirdly, and most importantly from my perspective, is Gen. Romeo Dallaire’s book, Shake Hands With The Devil. In the book, he details how the U.S. was the first to leap for the photo opportunity and commit to funding support for the Rwanda mission.

At that time, any UN vehicles supplied were being stolen by rebels and Gen. Dallaire was left with little support to conduct any mission with success.

The U.S. statement to provide a significant amount of funding was followed up by Dallaire on several occasions, but with no success.

Finally, he was advised that the U.S. would not be supporting the effort with cash, but with “equipment in kind” (exactly what Canada has been criticized of doing).

Dallaire subsequently received broken, aged and mismatched equipment that somehow added up to the amount pledged by the U.S., which had benefited from the media opportunity, but not been exactly transparent in their intent.

For now, however, the shoe does not fit on the other foot.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.