(This is abridged, the full story is hereBECAUSE TURKEY, as the only alliance member bordering Iraq, is a likely staging ground for a U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein,
NATO’s 19 members convened an emergency meeting Monday at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to begin planning how to respond to any Iraqi counterattack.
But France and Germany, which have led the opposition to U.S. military action in Iraq, were joined by Belgium in vetoing the planning process, intervening just an hour before it was to have been formally authorized. All NATO decisions require unanimous support.
Formally declaring that NATO planned to come to Turkey’s aid “would signify that ... any chance, any initiative to still resolve the conflict in a peaceful way was gone,” Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said.
In response, Turkey immediately requested emergency consultations under Article IV, NATO’s mutual defense treaty, the first time a member nation has ever invoked the provision. Those consultations ended Monday without resolution and were to continue Tuesday
Even though I am tenatively against war in Iraq, I think this goes too far. NATO is about mutual defense, If Germany, France, and Belgium refuse to uphold NATO's base principles, then all three countries should be expelled from the organization.
Not that it matters, NATO, much like the UN is completely irrelevant.