Spaniards, like everyone else in the world, will have a lot to think about when the COVID-19 pandemic ends. A virus that has around one and a half million people infected and has already caused the deaths of nearly 85 thousand people, including 14,500 in the homeland of Federico García Lorca, Antonio Machado and León Felipe.
The Spanish government should recall, for instance, the response they obtained from their so-called "allies" during the darkest and bitter days of the disease, when their hospitals were over-crowded with sick patients, when doctors and nurses were completely overwhelmed, and morgues and funeral homes filled to capacity.
Luis Gonzalo Segura wrote an article for the Russia Today news agency, in which he noted that when the number of infections and deaths were rising every day, the government of Spain asked for help from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, known as NATO.
According to Segura, they requested 150 thousand disposable gowns, 450 thousand face masks, 1,000 thermometers, 50,000 polymerase chain reaction tests, as well as facial protectors, surgical masks, gloves, rapid tests, and 500 mechanical ventilators.
The request was nothing substantial, but NATO would still have nothing to do with it and forwarded the note to the 29 members, to which only four responded: Turkey, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic and Latvia.
Not a single word came from the United States, even though Donald Trump has been blackmailing his European partners ever since he began occupying the White House, in order to increase their contribution to 4 percent of their Gross Domestic Product.
Since Spain began to participate in NATO international missions in 1990, the government has spent about 17 billion euros, of that amount, some 2 and a half billion in the last two years. Spain has also taken part in some operations that have a particular interest for Washington in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What could Madrid have done with that amount of money during this health crisis?
The Spanish government bitterly discovered that the so-called "solidarity" of NATO is nothing but a fairy tale. It is designed only to destroy, kill and waste large sums of money. It was not created to save lives.
Hopefully, when this pandemic is over, Spain will seriously think about the uselessness of such groups like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
