# If two NATO nations went to war... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 20, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611 "2002-04-20T01:00:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JS\_Princeton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/57b2e6/32.png) [@JS\_Princeton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JS_Princeton)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611/21 "2002-04-20T19:48:41Z")
Along the lines of the bizarre twists that may cause a country to fight its own ally… may I remind you of a former ally of the US to whom was provided weapons and munitions in a fight against the Iranian Evil? The ally: Iraq… Politics and diplomacy is a game people… we often don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Often times people don’t think (or pretend not to think) of the contingencies because of wishful thinking. If a war happened it would be a crisis, plain and simple. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611/22 "2002-04-20T20:20:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by nicky \* > \*\*Two NATO countries going to war with each other? > > Its just not going to happen. > > You might as well ask: what if one US state attacked another? \*\* Oh, absolutely. Completely inconceivable. I mean, in the two hundred and twenty-six plus years the U.S. has been in existence, there’s _never_ been an armed conflict between states, or groups of states. Well, um, except that once … It’s much less likely anymore, as it’s pretty well established in people’s minds that the individual states are not soveriegn nations in a strong alliance (which was one of the contentions of the Confederacy). But there’s no question that the NATO member nations are sovereign, so there’s no question that such a situation is still possible … Actually, that kind of gives an idea of what would happen. Both countries would be trying to sell their side of the brewing conflict to their NATO allies well before hostilities commenced. (These things don’t pop up out of nowhere, after all.) In most cases, there would be a consensus as to which nation was in the right, and the situation would end up being solved by diplomacy. (A country which might be willing to roll out the military resolution against its neighbor would probably be much less willing to do so with the threat of war against the whole NATO alliance.) If no consensus could be achieved, and diplomacy ended up failing, you’d end up with a war between not just the original two countries, but whole factions of NATO signatories. Some might remain neutral, and outside countries might be drawn in, but it would be pretty ugly … ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2002, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611/23 "2002-04-20T23:45:38Z")
Why does this whole thread bring to mind Sir Humphrey Appleby’s observation that the whole point of the British “independent nuclear deterant” was not the Russians, but the French … ? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2002, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611/24 "2002-04-21T19:43:48Z")
> [@](#): > > I mean, in the two hundred and twenty-six plus years the U.S. has been in existence, there’s never been an armed conflict between states, or groups of states. Well, um, except that once … Well, yes, but _other_ than the Toledo War, it’s definitely never happened 😉 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611/25 "2002-04-22T08:20:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Derleth \* > Would a UK-France war be conceptually different from a US-UK war, for example, in the context of my question? Going by history, England thrashed the Armada and Wellington sent Napoleon to the showers, but in the last [dustup against the US](http://www.nps.gov/sajh/pig_war.htm), they seem to have come out on the losing side by a score of 1 pig to none. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2002, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611/26 "2002-04-22T14:13:03Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by sailor > The way I heard it was “If Russia attacked Turkey from behind would Greece help?” I think nobody got the underlying joke yet… please note that Russia is attacking Turkey _from behind_ and maybe Greece (grease?) would help? 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-two-nato-nations-went-to-war/104611.md?page=1)