McCain and Obama Want Georgia in NATO
One issue Senators John McCain and Barack Obama agree on is NATO membership for Georgia. That makes The Dallas Morning News editorial against NATO expansion remarkable. It's not often the newspaper puts itself in opposition not just to one candidate, but to both.
In this case, The Dallas Morning News is right. Georgia is a small country bordering Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Until its recent independence, it was part of the Soviet Union. The breakup of the old Soviet Union is apparently not settled yet. Georgia itself has provinces that want to break away from Georgia and align with Russia. Russia is insistent on exerting its power and influence in the region.
I can't imagine a situation where the US has less leverage and more risk. The US needs to recognize what is and what isn't in its strategic interest. Going to war against Russia over its dispute with Georgia is not in the US national interest. It is not the responsibility of the United States to defend every country in the world from invasion.
Some say that if Georgia were in NATO, Russia would have never dared invade. That is dangerous thinking. If Georgia were in NATO, the US would be obligated to defend Georgia. A miscalculation by Russia, a misjudgment that the US is bluffing, and the US would find itself in a hot war with a nuclear-armed Russia.
Unless the US is willing to go to war with Russia over Georgia, the US should not accept Georgia membership in NATO. And if the US is willing to go to war over Georgia, it can do so whether or not Georgia is a member of NATO. Neither John McCain nor Barack Obama is urging war. They shouldn't be urging NATO membership, either.
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