The “Paper Tigers”
By: Obie Usategui
3/21/2026

There are today 32 countries that make up NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organization]. Presumably, members are part of a military alliance from Europe and North America. Of the 32 nations, 30 are in Europe and 2 in North America. Among the most important European members are France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Luxembourg, and most recently Finland, joining in 2023, and Sweeden joining in 2024. In North America, the United States and Canada.

As a point of reference only, out of the 32 NATO member countries, thus far, there have only been six countries, I repeat six countries that have offered support to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, namely, Canada, the Czech Republic, Albania, North Macedonia, Lithuania, and Latvia. Mind you, all European countries offering their support, ironically, happen to be the ones with the most limited military capabilities. Some of the more powerful members such as France, Italy and Spain are outright opposed to the Iran war while others such as Denmark, Finland, and Luxembourg have remained neutral in their opinions of the strikes while issuing broad criticism of the Iran regime.

Bottom line, once again, as they have done all throughout history, the U.S. is saving face of all these European countries, never mind that all of them have a lot more at stake than the U.S. does, yet, once again, the European cabal thrives on taking full advantage of the U.S.’s and Israeli’s military might while hypocritically looking the other way at a war against the world’s leading exporter of terrorism.

From my humble perspective, I have said it before and will say it again, there are two major world organizations which are, as far as I am concerned, a complete and total waste of our time and money, these are: 1) NATO, and 2) the United Nations. Founded in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a strategic alliance inspired by the motto «All for one and one for all,» as seen in The Three Musketeers. For the more kind-hearted among you, yes, we may even say that for the past 70 years, conceptually speaking, NATO may have somewhat succeeded in keeping the Soviet Union isolated, eventually leading to its collapse, however in recent years, NATO has been suffering from a major identity crisis – a crisis of purpose as most of its member nations are not longer convinced of the presumptuous value of the “alliance.” And, as they say, “the proof is in the pudding”.

Again, in my humble opinion, both NATO and the United Nations are worthless and obsolete organizations. Take the United Nations. Time and time again we see the UN dramatic endeavors unfolding in their circus-like conventions in their N.Y. headquarters where this body is majorly ruled by some of the world’s major detractors of democracy, i.e., Leftist nations, such as Russia, China, North Korea, even Cuba. This organization is bloated, slow to respond to crises, and it is not immune to scandals in the past such as the oil-for-food program that raised questions about its corruption.

The U.S.’s total defense spending tied to NATO obligations exceeds $950 billion dollars annually, which represents about 62% to 69% of the total defense spending by all NATO members – a little disproportionate would you not say?

If you think that is bad, how about the U.S. being [the] largest financial contributor to the United Nations with annual assessed contributions for the regular budget and peacekeeping operations often totaling $3 billion dollars, which represents 22% of the UN regular budget. Honestly, I think all U.S. taxpayers, you and I, would be better served by getting a $953 billion dollars tax refund than our continued stupidity by funding these two “paper tigers.”

Truth be told, maybe it is time that the U.S. stop fighting everyone else’s wars. Maybe we should let NATO deal with the Russia-Ukraine war, let NATO deal with Russia’s ambitious expansionary tendencies of another Sovietization of many European nations. Point I am trying to make, forever more, the U.S. has been relied upon in their Messianic role as the ultimate savior of freedoms and democracies around the world, and that’s fine, but, then again, maybe it is time where many nations around the world, start sharing their fair share of being free. I say, enough of the “paper tigers.”