How NATO could solve Europe’s migrant crisis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan frequently threatens to ‘unleash’ waves of migrants onto Europe. The latest threat came as Turkish representatives said to European leaders, that ‘we will blow your mind’, in respect of the vast quantities of migrants. In spite of the odd nature of Erdogan’s ministers using the slogans of the psychedelic rock era, the threat has worried many in Europe.  This of course came in the aftermath of The Netherlands cancelling a Turkish political rally and kicking out a Turkish Minister from the country.

The absurdity of the entire situation is compounded by the fact that Europe has subjected itself to a position wherein Erdogan is the gate keeper of Europe’s borders. If EU leaders maintained adequate border policing on Europe’s southern and south-eastern land and maritime borders, Erdogan’s threats would be entirely hollow. He can open his exit gates, but all the EU would need to do is shut and police its entry gates.

It is neither Turkey’s job nor obligation to maintain Europe’s borders, that is a de-facto European responsibility. If the EU cannot even maintain an adequate border police force,  this represents yet another of the EU’s many failures.

But there is a solution. At this very moment, NATO troops are sitting in Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. At the moment they are doing nothing. They are simply sitting around waiting for a Russian invasion that will never happen.

If European leaders are happy to have mainly US NATO troops in their countries, why not give them something useful to do? Why not use them to patrol Europe’s fragile southern and south-eastern borders from where Erdogan’s ‘mind blowing’ migrant wave would come?

If the money is all ready being expended on NATO, why not use NATO to help police actual security threats rather than sit around waiting for an imaginary threat?

The leaders of Europe are doing a grave disservice to their own populations who have shown a great deal of concern for the disastrous migrant crisis. Few people really believe that Russia poses any such threat to Europe and those who do are simply delusional.

Russia is too busy building and expanding alliances with China, Iran, India, Syria, Brazil, South Africa, Philippines and even Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt and Turkey, to be bothered with a hostile and increasingly unimportant EU.

Europe owes its people more than simply telling Erdogan to ‘be nice’, they ought to police their own borders, irrespective of the threats coming form Ankara. With NATO Europe could do this, but instead NATO is busy fighting the most expensive phoney war in history.