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Comment by jacquesm | Hacker News Reader

> By contrast, Libya and Kosovo were NATO authorised operations, so NATO resources could be used.

NATO was very careful to obtain requests from the UN in both cases, resolutions 1244 and 1973.

NATO has never said they have to get UN approval to engage in non-defensive military operations. Consider the NATO intervention in Kosovo: NATO member states sought UN Security Council approval for the intervention; when it became clear China and Russia would veto it, NATO went ahead and intervened anyway in the absence of any UN authorisation. NATO still reserves the right to engage in non-defensive military operations without UN authorisation, whenever its member states can unanimously agree that is appropriate.

Yes, and for your and my sake I hope they won't ever have to act upon that reserved right. Because when and if they do I give the world as we know it another 20 minutes or so.

Given Rusdia’s attack on Ukraine, I can easily imagine circumstances in which not acting on that reserved right might lead to the end of the world as we know it.

Yes, unfortunately there are no easy solutions to all this. It will most probably get a lot worse before it will get better again, how much worse I shudder to contemplate.

> Yes, unfortunately there are no easy solutions to all this.

How is Putin ceasing to throw Russia's unwilling and unwitting armed forces onto Ukraine not easy?

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