Christopher Hitchens on NATO, Gorbachev, and Gays in the Military (4/4) (1997)

May 25, 1997 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/11/christopher-hitchens-and-james.html

Enlargement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is the process of including new member states in NATO. NATO is a military alliance of states in Europe and North America whose organization constitutes a system of collective defence. The process of joining the alliance is governed by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty and by subsequent agreements. Countries wishing to join have to meet certain requirements and complete a multi-step process involving political dialogue and military integration. The accession process is overseen by the North Atlantic Council, NATO's governing body.

During the Cold War, NATO grew with the admission of Greece, Turkey, West Germany, and Spain. After the Cold War ended, and Germany reunited, there was a debate in NATO about continued expansion eastward. In 1999, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic were added to the organization, amid much debate within the organisation and Russian opposition. Another expansion came with the accession of seven Northern European and Eastern European countries: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania. These nations were first invited to start talks of membership during the 2002 Prague summit, and joined NATO on March 29, 2004, shortly before the 2004 Istanbul summit. Most recently, Albania and Croatia joined on April 1, 2009, shortly before the 2009 Strasbourg--Kehl summit.

Future expansion is currently a topic of debate in many countries. Cyprus and Macedonia are stalled from accession by, respectively, Turkey and Greece, pending the resolution of disputes between them. Other countries which have a stated goal of eventually joining include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Georgia. The incorporation of former Warsaw Pact countries has been a cause of increased tension between NATO countries and Russia. Mikhail Gorbachev reportedly agreed to allow the democratisation of Eastern Europe after being promised that NATO would not expand "one inch to the east."

When World War II broke out in 1939, Roosevelt rejected the Wilsonian neutrality stance and sought ways to assist Britain and France militarily. He began a regular secret correspondence with the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill in September 1939 discussing ways of supporting Britain. Roosevelt forged a close personal relationship with Churchill, who became Prime Minister of Britain in May 1940.

By mid-1941, Roosevelt had committed the U.S. to the Allied side with a policy of "all aid short of war." Roosevelt met with Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on August 14, 1941, to develop the Atlantic Charter in what was to be the first of several wartime conferences. In July 1941, Roosevelt ordered Henry Stimson, Secretary of War to begin planning for total American military involvement. The resulting "Victory Program," under the direction of Albert Wedemeyer, provided the President with the estimates necessary for the total mobilization of manpower, industry, and logistics to defeat the "potential enemies" of the United States. The program also planned to dramatically increase aid to the Allied nations and to have ten million men in arms, half of whom would be ready for deployment abroad in 1943. Roosevelt was firmly committed to the Allied cause and these plans had been formulated before the Attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan.

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[TheAbsurdHero]

Hitchens is quite the example of the value of a life lived with a little bit of intellectual honesty and bravery.

[dakotadenverdexter]

@ebonics4everyone Even more interesting is that we didn't surrender but the pre-agree upon time for withdrawal just happened to happen. Even crazier is that gays have always been in the military and that there is no correlation between the two :o

[ebonics4everyone]

Interesting to note that the US has officially surrendered in Iraq just days after leglizing gays in the military.

[redryan20000]

@gulshabbo wat

[gulshabbo]

Now, Hitchens has joined the narcissists.