North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Credit: Wikipedia

By Gary  Raynaldo    –    DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie this week introduced a congressional bill to remove the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The bill, HR 6508, the NATO Act, asserts that NATO’s original Cold War purpose no longer aligns with current U.S. national security interests. 

“NATO is a Cold War relic. We should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our own country, not socialist countries,” Rep. Massie said a written statement.  “NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed over thirty years ago. Since then, U.S. participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to risk U.S. involvement in foreign wars. Our Constitution did not authorize permanent foreign entanglements, something our Founding Fathers explicitly warned us against. America should not be the world’s security blanket—especially when wealthy countries refuse to pay for their own defense.”

If the bill passes, it would require the president to formally notify NATO of U.S. withdrawal under Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty. The legislation states that European NATO members have adequate economic and military capacity to provide for their own defense.  President Trump has argued that European allies do not contribute enough to their own defense, while maintaining the U.S. pays more than its fair share.

During the Cold War, NATO’s primary purpose was to deter and counter the threat posed by the Soviet Union and its satellite states, which formed the rival Warsaw Pact in 1955. NATO has 32 members across Europe and North America. NATO’s main headquarters is located in Brussels, Belgium.