What's the point of NATO?

There is an interesting and thought provoking article in the Conservative in house magazine The Daily Telegraph today by Fraser Nelson regarding NATO. Its all 'bluff and bluster' with NATO and president Putin knows it only to well. Germany needs Russia for its oil to keep them warm and snug on cold winter nights. France needs them for their lucrative arms deals. The old Warsaw Pact countries like Poland and Hungry must wonder what they have signed up to? You need an umbrella when it rains not when the sun is shinning, and now it's raining 'stair rods' in the Ukraine and the umbrella is still in the hall stand. David Cameron and Obama know this Rubicon has to be crossed if NATO means anything at all? Unfortunately for the UK there has been a big reduction in its fighting capacity, and after the debacles of Iraq and Afghanistan there is war weariness at home. Tony Blair has caused enormous damage to our national self confidence in setting out on these ill thought out adventures. The chickens are coming home to roost! I fear as Churchill said of World War Two there will be "blood and iron" before the day is out.