Posted By: John Handforth  on Thursday, September 04, 2008

Mister Hanson,

I can't say that I enjoyed reading your column, but that is because the truth is often a bitter pill and hard to swallow. I have always felt that we contributed too much to both NATO and the United Nations.

The only thing that either one of them likes about America is the money that we provide.  Personally, I remember being in grade school when we had lessons about how great Dag Hammarskjöld (General Secretary of the U.N. at the time) was and what he was doing for the world.  That was pretty serious stuff for a fourth grader.

When I look back with the mind of an adult (I borrowed it) I see that he wasn't quite the great man that I remember.

NATO seemed to diminish with each new member.  It won't be disolved until we stop financing it.  As you pointed out, there is no longer a practical need for NATO unless the members act together.  Other than a few plane skirmishes and the Cuban Missile Crisis, we, as a Country, have always backed away from the Russian Bear.  Now, we are even afraid of China.

Why should we bother?  Let's pull out of NATO and ask the UN to vacate the premises.  They can always relocate to NATO headquarters.  It will remove 1,000 spies from New York and possibly relieve their parking problem.

Thank you for a good column.