A report from the Guardian:
While this looks and reads like a thinly veiled threat to WMD-equipped rogue regimes, it isn’t. Military commanders don’t play those games, politicians do. Rather, this appears to be a blueprint for reinvigorating the floundering alliance–one that seeks to prop up an externally weak system on the shoulders of a muscular nuclear strategy. And it’s coming from representatives of NATO nations that actually do have that heavy-fisted nuclear hammer at their disposal: France, Germany, the Netherlands, US, and UK. Three have nukes to use, though many often forget that the Dutch and Germans (and others) still borrow B61 nuclear bombs from the United States under the nuclear weapons sharing agreement. Which is nice of us, I think. The document also proposes a number of reforms to NATO’s decision making structure, and if you’re as frustrated with NATO’s performance in Afghanistan as I am, you’ll like ’em all. Among them are a change to majority voting, rather than the current consensus process that gives each national government a veto; the abolition of national caveats in NATO operations; excluding non-participating nations from making decisions about NATO operations; and authorizing the use of force without UN approval. But before you start imagining NATO armies swarming into the Helmand, keep in mind that these are only recommendations. Convincing the collective governments of NATO to allow their Armed Force to play is a sizable hurdle to overcome. Remember these are the types that won’t let their boys fight after dusk and think that “snow days” apply to combat ops. So revitalizing the alliance is one thing. Talking them into using nuclear weapons preemptively? I’ll believe it when I see it.
