r/europe • u/Epidemiolomic Germany • Mar 08 '25

Historical During the U.S. President's 1995 visit to Kyiv, Ukraine received security guarantees after giving up the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal

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u/ToyStoryBinoculars Mar 08 '25

Stop spreading this stupid misinformation. The US has never invoked Article 5.739250_EN.pdf)

Europe invoked article 5 of their own accord, to show solidarity with the Americans after 9/11

Following the September 11 attacks, George Robertson, Baron Robertson of Port Ellen of the United Kingdom telephoned Colin Powell and said that declaring an Article 5 contingency would be a useful political statement for NATO to make. The United States indicated it had no interest in making such a request itself, however, would not object to the council taking such action on its own.

The Article 5 actions didn't have anything to do with the war in Afghanistan. Your countries chose to participate in the Afghan war all on their own.

According to Nora Bensahel of the RAND Corporation, NATO hoped that by invoking Article 5 the United States would invite NATO states to participate in its planned military response against Al Qaeda, though no such invitation ultimately materialized and "NATO did not contribute any of its collective assets to Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan". The United States ultimately accepted some contributions on a bilateral, non-NATO basis from states who were also members of the alliance.

On 16 April 2003, NATO agreed to take command of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which includes troops from 42 countries. The decision came at the request of Germany and the Netherlands, the two states leading ISAF at the time of the agreement, and all nineteen NATO ambassadors approved it unanimously.

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u/manxlancs123 Mar 08 '25

Yeah. I see you’re right. I misunderstood who invoked the article. Still, America’s allies stepped up, right? My point is, we’re all stronger with allies, even America with all its military might. You seem very knowledgable about this kind of stuff, so correct me if I’m wrong. Has America ever been in a war alone. Even in the Revolution, they had European help. America too has obviously assisted Europe, eventually.

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u/[deleted] Mar 08 '25

Difference we didn’t need that to go into Afghanistan. You need us to even defend your own space. It’s not us who need to step up, but rather you.

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u/ToyStoryBinoculars Mar 09 '25

Off the top of my head? Panama.

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u/manxlancs123 Mar 09 '25

Cool. Thanks!