Does the World Still Need NATO?

NATO was created in 1949 when Soviets were a threat ...
Is Russia still a threat? Does the world need NATO?

6-17-20, Scott Ritter* - By calling out Germany for failing to pay its fair share of the cost of North Atlantic Treaty Org [NATO], US President Donald Trump has challenged the legitimacy of the foundational premise upon which the alliance was built. This is a good thing. Experts now speculate that a second term for Pres Trump could fatally weaken NATO the transatlantic alliance that has been since 1949 charged with deterring the perceived Russian aggression since the end of the Second World War. The Trump administration has announced it will withdraw some 9,500 troops from Germany as punishment for Berlin’s failure to raise its required contribution to defense spending of two percent of its GDP.

Pres Trump’s actions, and the concerns of the international academics about the possible demise of NATO, are perhaps best evaluated by NATO’s first secretary general in 1952 - Lord Ismay said that the purpose of alliance was “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down." [..] 
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This relentless search for an enemy worthy of a transatlantic alliance [NATO] has brought the world full circle ... Russia is neither seeking nor is prepared for a major conflict with the West, and yet the NATO alliance problems that don't exist. “Keeping Russia out” has never been a problem – Russia never wanted in. More here

Trump confirms US cutting troops in Germany over NATO Member lack of contributions
6-16-20, DW.com -- On June 15, 2020 US President Donald Trump said the USA is reducing the number of American troops deployed in Germany accusing Berlin of being "delinquent" in its contribution to NATO. He said: "We're protecting Germany and they're delinquent. That doesn't make sense; the deployment of US troops comes at a tremendous cost to the United States. [USA $686 billion in 2017; Germany $45 bln - CNBC report here]

Pres Trump said that Germany is not meeting its commitment to spend 2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense as required by the NATO alliance. Member nations pledged to reach the 2% threshold by 2024 and Germany by 2031. Trump has long complained that host nations have not been paying their fair share for the US troops and has repeatedly singled out Germany as a major offender. Until Berlin meets the spending target, he said, the US will reduce its deployment in the country. He also accused Germany of treating the US "badly" on trade: "So we get hurt on trade and we get hurt on NATO." German towns face economic hit should US troops go... ​

Russia is no threat; no need for NATO

In addition to projecting a non-existent Soviet desire to occupy Western Europe, the US manufactured so-called “missile gaps” and “bomber gaps” that fueled an arms race with the Soviets of its own making. The US needed NATO as a justification for priming a post-war military industrial complex that underpinned American economic viability, and NATO needed a Russian threat to justify its continued existence. From George H.W. Bush through to Barack Obama; only Donald Trump has refused to play their game.  Trump has envisioned a world where the US and Russia could get along as friends, calling out the hypocrisy of the US ...

continuing to pay the lion’s share of a bloated NATO budget, and re-examining America’s relationship with the world in a context other than simply preserving 75-year-old “rules,” Trump has challenged the very foundation of legitimacy NATO has manufactured for itself. It has taken the Trump administration four years to strip away the veneer of legitimacy surrounding NATO. If re-elected, the reality is that a Trump administration, given four more years, will tear down the entire NATO edifice. Given that NATO was born on a false premise that has been artificially sustained for nearly 70 years, such an outcome cannot come soon enough.   

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​*Source: ​Scott Ritter a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer who served the USA in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty and in Genl Schwarzkopf’s staff from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. Became a critic of the gulf war ... More here