France is witnnesing widespread protests against NATO in the recent weeks. Behind these are repeated calls to leave the military alliance. The Solidarité and Progres Party has also presented such a call, which has been signed by citizens and several retired members of the armed forces.
The call is presented below in English translation. For the original text in French and the list of signatories see here.
For peace now: Let’s take leave of NATO, let’s prepare its disbandment
74 years after the creation of NATO, the world has never been so close to a generalized confrontation, including nuclear. Why is this so? Instead of protecting us, NATO threatens world peace. From being a defensive Atlantic Alliance, it is now becoming the world’s policeman and a political body dictating its will to the EU and beyond. France must set an example by immediately putting itself on leave (“empty chair” policy) from NATO and prepare its disbandment.
In 1949, along with the United States, the UK and nine other countries, France was one of the signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), a defensive alliance of countries “determined to unite their efforts for their collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security,” and this within the strict framework of international law as defined by the United Nations: “The States parties to the present Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live together in peace with all peoples and all governments.” Article 1 of the treaty confirms this commitment.
With the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact and the disintegration of the USSR in 1991, NATO lost all raison d’être (reason to exist). To avoid being disbanded in a world moving towards global disarmament, new threats were brandished, and even invented, to justify military interventions more and more distant from the North Atlantic region: weapons of mass destruction (Iraq), massacres of populations (Kosovo), Islamic terrorism (Afghanistan), climate change and now, the threat posed by “autocratic regimes” (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Turkey) to the “rules-based world order” (i.e. rules dictated exclusively by NATO member countries themselves).
Repeatedly, NATO has violated its own rules:
— Article 1 commits the parties to respect the status of the United Nations and to settle by peaceful means any dispute affecting international peace and security, and justice. However, never has a NATO country raised its voice to demand respect for this fundamental rule and we have seen exactly the opposite: a rush to fight!–Article 4 says that any member country that believes its security or that of the Alliance is in danger can call for a consultation among Allied countries. No one has invoked it. In fact, the opposite was true, as the Americans called the member countries to Ramstein for Ukraine, not for consultation, but to plan a “strong” defense, till the last drop of blood.
— Articles 5 and 6 respecting mutual assistance apply only to member states under armed attack. Today, Ukraine is not a member of NATO, but member states are providing it with increasingly offensive weapons (Leopard 2, M1 Abrams and soon French Leclerc tanks)
Atomic bombs –for France, a defensive weapon of deterrence– are now qualified by NATO, following various technological improvements, as weapons to be used on the battlefield, even in an offensive strategy of preventive first strike if required.
Thus, 74 years after its creation and following the Madrid meeting of June 2022, NATO has become a “global” political body dictating its will to the EU. Its sole purpose, as evidenced by its enlargement to Russia’s immediate borders, is to manage the conflicts it has itself created. Therefore, by betraying its own charter and flouting its own principles, in fact and in deed, NATO has disbanded itself. To stop the mad train, France must:
— take immediate leave of it;
— begin the process of leaving its integrated command;
— replace it with a new economic and global security architecture.
To this end, it must initiate talks with States from all sides. This is the only approach that can guarantee lasting peace, laying the foundation for a new era of mutual development that meets the challenges of the 21st century.