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PERSONAL OPINIONS
 The Hyde Park correspondents interviewedthree teachers, asking them the followingquestions:1.How long have you been monitoring theNATO issues? Was it connected with yourmilitary service, or just with yourinterests?
2.
What do you associate NATO with?
3.
What is NATO in the modern world? Can you comment its activities inSerbia, Afghanistan or Iraq?4.What is your attitude to the non-block (neutral) status of Ukraineconfirmed by the Referendum on Independence in December of 1991,and written in the Constitution?
5.
What advantages or/and disadvantages may Ukraine get if it joinsNATO?
Georgiy Serhiyovych POLYAKOV,
Lieutenant-Colonel, Teacher of the Basics of Defense of theMotherland:
1.I started watching NATO when I joined the army. Every soldiershould learn about his potentialenemy. It was not connected withmy special interests.2. NATO can protect its members fromthe terrorist attacks. Also, theorganization effectively defends theinterests of its members all over theworld. In these aspects a countrybenefits from its NATO membership.3.In the modern world NATO secures stability. Aggressors can’t offend theirvictims freely in the presence of NATO forces. NATO troops often serve as abarrier between the fighting adversaries, as it was in Bosnia in 1996. TheirSFOR and IFOR peacekeeping missions in the Balkans were very effective.4.I support Ukraine’s neutral status. It is one of the basic principles of buildingour state. The neutral status is a Constitutional law, and the majority of 
 
people voted for it back in 1991. Our country should remain reallyindependent. We can take care of ourselves, can’t we?5.In case Ukraine joins NATO, we will be safe from any aggression. That is thebiggest advantage. However, the main disadvantage of such a decision willbe our deteriorated relations with Russia. First of all our economic relationswill suffer. Russia is very sensitive about NATO’s expansion to the East.
The interview was takenby Helen Mykhailenkoand Irene Petrashchuk,Group 34-E
Bohdan Stepanovych SAVON,
Physical Education Teacher
I have been watching NATO for a longperiod of time, since the times of theUSSR. The army had its ideology then.Nowadays things are different, but mybeliefs have not changed: NATO meanswar!First of all, NATO is associated with war,bloodshed and death… If there were NATOsoldiers, instead of ours, in our cities andseaports, there were American troops attheir bases stomping their boots on ourland, would not it mean that we have lostour independence?Can we call their mission in Iraq a peacekeeping one? I don’t think so. NATOhad broken into Iraq under the pretext of looking for some Iraqi nuclearweapons, which have never been found. However, we all know their motive:they just needed oil. That dirty war resulted in numerous deaths of innocentpeople: partisans, women and children… I want Ukraine to be defended byUkrainian soldiers, not by foreigners…Russia is against NATO, and we have always been, we are, and we willdepend on it. The Slavs ought to stay together – the common faith, and thecommon victory in the war! If we gave our bases to NATO, Russian missileswould be aimed at Ukraine, because nobody can guarantee that NATO’smissiles would not be aimed at Russia. I am definitely against Ukraine’s joining NATO!
The interview was taken by Volodymyr Nagornyi, Group 34-E.
 
 
Oleksiy OleksandrovychZABOLOTNYI,
English Teacher, PFC (ret.)
1.I put an eye on NATO about 30 years ago. While atcollege, I was planning a career of a militaryinterpreter. Also, foreign armed forces havealways been a sort of a hobby of mine. Later,serving in the COMINTEL, I studied NATO forcesprofessionally. I’m a soldier of the Cold War.2.For me NATO means security, efficiency, cooperation, responsibility andprofessionalism. Even in our every-day activities, when we criticize the waythings are at home, we enviously give some symbolic examples, such as“British traditions”, “American richness”, “Canadian ecology”, “German cars”,“Dutch cheese”, “Italian football”, “Danish cakes”, “Norwegian fjords”,“Turkish resorts”… They are all NATO members. And I really like the wayNATO works. Imagine a small (NATO-member) country with half a dozenhelicopters playing Air Force. An aggressive dictatorship decides to solve itsinternal problems bringing them abroad (like it has been done many times).But instead of a very petty army, the villain finds himself confronted with theentire US Navy + Marines, Bundeswehr panzers, Royal Norwegian Jagers, andItalian Alpini, proudly covered from above by the Royal Air Force. God savethat villain. Nobody ever thinks about offending a NATO country.3.When we say “civilization”, we may not think about NATO, but it comesautomatically. Belonging to Europe, means belonging to the North Atlanticcivilization. Do you know why Switzerland does not join NATO? Because it issurrounded by its members. Why bother? So, NATO is the force component of our civilization. And that civilization cannot afford any mess like terroristmaniacs playing with weapons of mass destruction, or genocide in Europe, orpiracy along the Eastern Coast of Africa. So, they go in and solve theproblem. After the USSR collapsed being defeated in the Cold War, NATOstarted thinking globally, and since then has become even more responsible.NATO does not operate in Iraq. It operates in Afghanistan, though. But theydon’t smash entire villages there, and they don’t face massive guerrillamovement, as the Soviets did. They are there by the UN mandate, by theway.
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