Canada Well Positioned To Lead NATO Forward

By Zach Paikin

Ten years ago, 19 terrorists murdered nearly 3,000 human beings — including 24 Canadians — on American soil prompting NATO, for the first time in its history, to invoke Article 5 of its charter calling for collective defense.

Collective defense goes beyond securing our immediate security interests. It also advances our values both through the defense of liberty at home and the pursuit of human rights abroad.

Despite this, the post-Cold-War United States seems to be unwilling to prioritize securing long-term strategic interests ahead of obtaining short-term commercial benefit. Furthermore, core funding for the U.S. military has decreased since the end of the Gulf War while European defense capabilities have also declined.

The United States, leader of the free world, has yet to draw a new strategic map of the world after having won the Cold War. Do NATO states believe that the fall of the Soviet Union represented the end of history? Do they believe that the security of their populations can no longer be threatened?

full article http://jinsa.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/canada-well-positioned-to-lead-nato-forward/