I'm shocked that this article in Business Insider wasn't printed in a satirical paper like the Onion, or the Telegraph, but unfortunately, this kind of fact-free reporting seems par for the course for the Mainstream Media in the final days leading up to the Scottish Independence Referendum.
The idea that Russia would invade an independent Scotland or that NATO and the United Kingdom would sit back and allow such an invasion is absolutely absurd.
The Royal Navy is famed for the independence of its captains, and for its aggression. If you talk to sailors or officers with the US Navy, they will tell you that the US Navy is not a defensive military force. They believe that the best defense is an overwhelming offense. This mentality was adopted by us from the Royal Navy itself. The Navy which sunk the Belgrano is not going to sit back and refuse to act until Russian subs are puttering up the Themes.
In the same way that the United States and Canada have cooperation on military matters through systems like NORAD, rUK and Scotland will have significant military cooperation on military matters. Canada has a tiny population in the second largest country on earth by landmass. The United States does not let Canada fend for itself against increasingly aggressive Russia. The US Air Force routinely helps Canada escort Russian military aircraft out of Canadian Airspace. And vice-versa is also true. On 9/11, Canadian Fighters were scrambled to help defend US Airspace. In the aftermath of Katrina, Mexican Military units operated within the United States to help save lives.
A military or strategic threat to Canada is the same as a Military or Strategic threat to the United States. This is true of the UK and Scotland.
For over a thousand years, England and its predecessors have been concerned with the security of Britain as a whole. The threat of Invasion from Scotland, either by the Scots themselves or by some other force invited to land in Scotland, has been the driving force for almost every military engagement between Scotland and England throughout history.
The same is true on this side of the Atlantic. At the height of the British Empire, there were great fears that Britain might invade from Canada, in an attempt to revoke America's independence.
The United Kingdom will not under any condition, even post-Scottish independence, want to return to the days where there is a real, territorial threat from the North. The defense of Scotland will by definition be the defense of the United Kingdom, in the same way that the defense of Canada is by definition the defense of the United States.
Let's deal once and for all with the question of NATO.
Nato is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The entire reason it's called the "North Atlantic" treaty is because one of its primary strategic goals is to secure the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap. Securing that choke point is critical to NATO and the Royal Navy, especially with Russia behaving aggressively as of late.
Scotland's vital strategic importance both to economic activities and military activities means that NATO will consider Scotland's membership to be vital, simply because of Geography. There are longer conversations the west needs to have about NATO and the future, especially after the invasion of Afghanistan.
Many Scots will remember Keep Nato Out, and the proposed Stornoway military base. They will remember the late Willie MacRae, and others who have campaigned against nuclear weapons in Scotland.
An independent Scotland will have the capability to determine its own relationship with NATO. For reasons of geographical necessity, the security of the Greenland-Iceland-Scotland gap, Scotland would enjoy a privileged position within NATO. It is only with Scotland in NATO that NATO would have the capability to keep track of Russian Nuclear-Armed Submarines. With Russia acting aggressively as late, NATO cannot afford to leave Scotland out.
When it comes to the question of American Nuclear Weapons, the strategic vision laid out by Barack Obama has included securing and reducing the number of Nuclear weapons worldwide. Colin Powell, probably the most educated and experienced Republican on military matters, and one of the more respected voices on defense in the US despite his integral role in the invasion of Iraq, is no dove. He was the one who stood before the UN and gave false evidence to the world about imaginary Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet even he has called Nuclear Weapons "Useless," and argued for their complete, global elimination:
With even American War Hawks arguing for the elimination of Nuclear Weapons, we have reached a turning point in global history.
But this view is not universal. There will always be idiot generals, men like Curtis LeMay, who during the Cuban Missile Crisis argued that Nuclear War was inevitable, and that we ought to just attack the Communists while we had greater superiority than they did.
Curtis LeMay would have considered a nuclear war where US missiles killed more innocents than Russian missiles to be a victory. His ideological descendants exist today. They are stupid, and they must forever be prevented from acting through civilian supervision over the military.
A Scotland within NATO will be a force for NATO-Wide nuclear disarmament. Scotland can help tip the scales away from the Curtis LeMays of NATO, and towards the Colin Powells. Scotland can be a voice for reason within a military alliance that needs to develop a more reasonable strategy for global security.
And I am not the only one who has pointed out that Scotland will be welcome in NATO. Even the BBC has been forced to admit this, as of late.
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This was posted as the Inaugural Blog entry on a site for special coverage of the Scottish Independence Referendum.
I'm flying to Scotland to report on the Independence Referendum firsthand, and raising money for expenses while I'm there.