But why isnt the left quite so interested ?
About a century ago, the socialist movement was afflicted with a phenomenon known as 'economism' , which essentially meant campaigning on the economic iniquities of the day ( as the name suggests) while ignoring some of the more arcane policitcal issues. It looks as if we have a similar case now.
A couple of years ago there was a certain amount of concern, its true, but this was mostly limited to the effects of NATO weaponry, not ever getting to the root cause of its raison d'etre. A pacifist critique is not enough.
Capitalism needs NATO or an organization like it; extraction loans (a la IMF) and the growth of so-called global enterprises need armed forces to maintain frontiers and protect investments. It is hardly co-incidence that countries either in, or applying to join, the EU are also in a similar relation to NATO. Commondreams news reported an interesting fact, that NATO has rejected the Bush Jnr NMD 'star wars' plans, but do we really think they've gone pacifist on us ? Perhaps they want resources to be transferred elsewhere.
NATO will probably outlast the 'globalised' capitalist ventures; it has the full backing of the worlds most powerful states with the exception of China and Russia, and is not subject to the need for increased consumer demand. If we dont pay more attention to NATO now, we may find ourselves having to in a few years...

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