Tsun Tzu dethroned.

[abaris]

The problem isn't NATO per se.  It is the fact that the US tried to use its dominating position in NATO to use NATO as a vehicle to aggrandize its own influence in Eastern Europe.  Left to tradition NATO allies NATO would likely not expand beyond its Cold War foot print, and remain a viable security arrangement as oppose to a tool of ill considered US self aggrandizement.

It is the conservation of a Cold War vehicle. NATO was obsolete the moment the Warszaw pact seized to exist. It would have been the wiser decision to create something new. I was against the countries of the former soviet block joining the EU for this exact reason. They looked to the USA and NATO rather than Brussels and it was obvious they weren't ready and willing for a real European integration. And NATO is in the way of a combined European army, which would be much more cost effective than every country playing their own military game.

That creates the bizarre situation, by the way, that Greece, the poorest country in the EU, arms itself to the teeth because of being afraid of another NATO member - Turkey. It's often forgotten that two NATO members fought a hot war against each other, a little more than 40 years ago.