On Monday, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) introduced in the United States House of Representatives a resolution (H.Res. 525) calling on President Barack Obama “to work closely with other North Atlantic Treaty Organization [NATO] members to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty in response to the Paris attacks.”
Article 5 in the NATO treaty deals with member nations taking action in response to an attack on another NATO member.
Poe is chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade in the House Foreign Affairs Committee — the committee to which Poe’s resolution has been referred for consideration.
Bringing NATO into the ISIS War could very much escalate the fighting in the Middle East and, potentially, eleswhere. It also risks conflict with the Russian government that has expressed its unease with the expansion of NATO in Eastern Europe and that is now engaged in military actions in Syria in alliance with the Syrian government — a government that the US, along with other governments and insurgents, has been attempting to overthrow.
As WikiLeaks pointed out soon after the killings in Paris, French President François Hollande’s comments that the killings were an army’s act of war that was prepared, organized, and planned from abroad is the sort of language that would support triggering Article 5.
Certainly, Poe and plenty of other US House and Senate members are ready to take Hollande up on the apparent invitation for NATO taking part in the ISIS War.
The text of Poe’s resolution follows:
RESOLUTION
Urging the Administration to work with North Atlantic Treaty Organization member states to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty in response to the Paris attacks.
Whereas terrorist attacks in Paris, France, killed an estimated 129 civilians at 7 different locations on November 13, 2015;
Whereas ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks and vowed to carry out additional attacks against Western targets and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states;
Whereas Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, signed at Washington, April 4, 1949, states that “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all … .”;
Whereas France is a signatory of NATO and the November 13, 2015, attack qualifies as an “armed attack” against a member country in Europe; and
Whereas NATO members, including France, invoked Article 5 less than 24 hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks in solidarity with the people of the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives calls on the President to work closely with other North Atlantic Treaty Organization members to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty in response to the Paris attacks.
Adam worked from 2003 through 2013 as a legislative aide for Rep. Ron Paul. Previously, he was a member of the Wisconsin State Board of Elections, a co-manager of Ed Thompson's 2002 Wisconsin governor campaign, and a lawyer in New York and Connecticut.
