NATO Summit - May 2012

[C. Flower]

Billed as mainly about transition from Afghanistan, the two day NATO summit in Chicago has been subject to mass protests by vets and others, with a lot of reports of police violence against demonstrators. http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natolive/events_84074.htm

On the first day, the highly destabilising European Missile Shield was declared operational.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Globa...ly-operational

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/...-news-roundup/

I don't think NATO gets this kind of a circus together just to discuss the supposed wind-down in Afghanistan.

Rising tensions in Europe, the potential for the break up of the Eurozone and the Arab Spring, etc. etc. will, I'm sure, have been discussed too.

[Holly]

I cannot see much of a future for NATO now that the Cold War is over.

[Count Bobulescu]

SPEED READ - Chicago Tribune on the NATO summit, which continues today on Mayor Emauel's turf - banner, "Topic 1: Afghanistan ... NATO members roll up sleeves on pullout, push Pakistan to open supply routes," by David S. Cloud and Kathleen Hennessey, Tribune Washington Bureau: "The two-day summit, the largest in the military alliance's 63-year history, came as White House officials made clear they were furious at Pakistan's continued refusal to reopen ground routes used to move fuel and other war supplies into Afghanistan, a six-month standoff the White House had hoped to resolve before the summit."
--Video, "President Obama welcomes NATO to his 'hometown'" http://trib.in/JJQgVD
--Bottom half of ChiTrib front, "Peaceful, then push comes to shove -- The clashes: Marchers try to get to summit site," by David Heinzmann, John Chase and Andy Grimm: "[D]emonstrators rallied in Grant Park, then marched south on Michigan Avenue to Cermak Road. ... A couple of hundred protesters, many wearing black, wanted to march east, where President Barack Obama and more than 60 world leaders met at McCormick Place ... Chicago police, however, weren't going to let them pass." http://trib.in/Lbm7vQ

[C. Flower]

Talk on twitter about tens of thousands of demonstrators.

Would be interesting to get a verified approximate number.