At 19:02 13-9-01 -0400, John Giorgis wrote:
>I do, however, have a few more questions for you:
>
>1) Do you think that the Netherlands should fulfill its obligations under
>the North Atlantic Treaty? If "no", please provide a detailed explanation.
Yes. It signed the Treaty, so it should abide by its rules. I must point
out however (again) that the attack on the US was an act of terrorism, not
an act of war. It is therefore none of NATO's concern.
>2) What do you think the reaction of the Netherlands would be, if after the
>Netherlands was attacked, it then invoked Article V with the unanmious
>consent of the North Atlantic Council, and was then told by the United
>States that the US will not provide troops or weapons for the defence of
>the Netherlands?
This is irrelevant. No country has performed an act of war against The
Netherlands, so there is no reason for us to invoke Article V. In the case
of a military strike, yes, we would be furious if the US would give your
response after Article V was invoked. The relationship between our
countries is, however, such that this will not happen. In the case of a
terrorist attack, we will be quite able to deal with it without dragging
NATO into it.
Jeroen
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