The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is in the news. First its secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, announced that it would deploy forces at new bases in Eastern Europe in response to the crisis in Ukraine. And then general Richard Shireff, who stepped down from his post as NATO deputy supreme commander earlier this year, said that the military alliance would need to rearm if it were serious about defending itself in the future. Asked about the crisis in Ukraine, he said: “The reality is that NATO would be very hard pressed and they would find it very difficult to put it into the field, at sea, or in the air the means required, particularly on land I would assess, to counter any form of Russian adventurism.” In short, NATO would not be able to stop a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe because of years of military cuts. The only mystery in all this is the very mention of Russian adventurism. Adventurism, what adventurism?