Shut it down

Gates fights the obvious necessity:

BRUSSELS (AP) - America's military alliance with Europe - the cornerstone of U.S. security policy for six decades - faces a "dim, if not dismal" future, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday in a blunt valedictory address.

In his final policy speech as Pentagon chief, Gates questioned the viability of NATO, saying its members' penny-pinching and lack of political will could hasten the end of U.S. support.

As it should. It should go without saying that NATO's purpose died twenty freaking years ago and the alliance should have been mothballed then. What followed instead was wholly predictable:

• An increase in the number of NATO countries from 16 to 28*
• An increasing number of poorly-planned and peripheral missions, all of which dump unnecessary costs on the already-broke American taxpayer.

NATO's continued existence is a shining example of a law that I have not named yet*** but which applies to any organization which fulfills its primary purpose. It does not matter if that organization is a labor union, a church denomination****, a civil-rights organization, or in this case, an extra-national military structure, once an organization is created to solve a problem, and that problem is solved, the organization will immediately start to create problems to justify its existence. NAACP will find 'racism' in standardized tests, labor unions will become the fundraising arm of the Democratic Party, NATO will bomb Tripoli. Such organizations need to be killed wholesale, and if something arises that still needs to be done, then it ought to be done by an organization that has not yet developed a half-century's worth of ass-shaped indentations on all the chairs.

There is nothing NATO is doing now that America cannot do better on an ad-hoc alliance basis, or better yet, leave undone.  Why the hell should we still be guarding South Korea 60 years after Michael Dukakis made it safe for democracy? Why the hell do we need an alliance with Slovenia and Luxembourg to fight against a tinhorn north African dictator***** who has not bothering us since Reagan blew up his house back in the 80s?

* several of which used to be part of the very Warsaw Pact that NATO opposed**.
** Or which was created to oppose NATO, whatever.
*** El Borak's First Law of Bureaucracy.
**** In the case of churches, it is generally and purposely knocked from its purpose by liberals rather than fulfilling those purposes, but the result is the same.
***** I mean, the guy's only a colonel for crying our loud.