NATO spokesman Carmen Romero later told Agence France-Presse that in relation to Article 5 obligations, "We take our responsibility to protect NATO allies extremely seriously."
The U.S. and NATO can exploit Turkey's bordering Syria to intervene against the latter in the name of alleged collective defense. [1]
Article 5 has only been acted on once before in the 63 years of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in October of 2001 after the attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. of the preceding month.
That decision was the genesis of NATO's involvement in the over decade-long war in Afghanistan, which also includes Alliance warplanes and troops stationed in bases in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and deadly NATO attacks conducted inside Pakistan.
The activation of Article 5 also resulted in NATO AWACS surveillance aircraft being deployed along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and the launching of Operation Active Endeavor, a permanent NATO naval surveillance and interdiction mission that controls all access to and from the Mediterranean Sea from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Suez Canal and the Dardanelles Strait.
Less than three years afterward, with direct relevance to the current situation, the closest approximation of an Article 5 mobilization occurred when a month before the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq the NATO Defence Planning Committee authorized the deployment of three Patriot interceptor missile batteries from the Netherlands and two AWACS aircraft to the Turkish air base in Konya, used by U.S. Air Forces in Europe, including as the site of Operation Anatolian Eagle joint U.S.-Turkish air warfare exercises held several times a year, often with the participation of other NATO member states and partners. Partnership participants have included Mediterranean Dialogue members Israel and Jordan, Istanbul Cooperation Initiative member the United Arab Emirates (which has provided fighter jets and troops for NATO's wars in Libya and Afghanistan) and Pakistan.
The Pentagon bases an estimated 90 B61 tactical nuclear bombs at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as part of its nuclear sharing agreement with NATO. That is, the U.S. has nuclear weapons (as well as a new missile radar base) in a nation bordering Syria and Iran under an arrangement with NATO.
With the Washington Post bluntly calling for NATO armed intervention in the West African nation of Mali and The Guardian demanding the same in Syria [2], all efforts must be extended to demand the disbanding of the lawless military bloc ahead of its summit in Chicago next month before it triggers an even larger crisis than it has in its previous wars in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Libya.
1) Turkish Actions Designed To Trigger NATO Confrontation With Syria?
Stop NATO
June 21, 2011
http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/turkish-actions-designed-to-trigger-nato-confrontation-with-syria/
2) NATO nations must help restore order in Mali
The Washington Post
April 5, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nato-nations-must-help-restore-order-in-mali/2012/04/05/gIQAFK1LyS_story.html
Simon Tisdall, Obama and Nato should act before the Syria crisis spreads further
The Guardian
April 10, 2012
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/apr/10/obama-nato-syria-crisis-spread
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