EP is finally on the road again, travelling this week, and out of touch for the most part. It doesn’t seem right, though, to leave subscribers without a forum in which to respond to a tendentious column. So here one is! I’ll respond when I am able. dw
This column asks us to consider an alternate history in which other choices were made leading to more acceptable outcomes. It makes a good case that had Biden taken the route suggested the world would be better off. While we are considering such things, how much better off would the world be had we pressed the attack on bin Laden in Tora Bora? Or had George H. Bush not faked a cause to attack Iraq? There are many such actions by the US that appear in retrospect to be blunders. Blunders more obviously self-injurious than NATO expansion.
We risked nuclear war because USSR was placing weaponry in Cuba. . . 90 miles away. We have The Monroe Doctrine a/k/a Stay away. But we condemn a nation for objecting to encroachment on lands with which it has ancient ties and borders.
I admire the courage of the Ukrainians, but is world peace to be jeopardized because we have no respect for Russia's territorial concerns?
NATO did not force itself onto Eastern Europe any more than it is now forcing itself onto Sweden and Norway. What would have happened if NATO had refused to accept the countries of Eastern Europe into NATO? Everyone who lives in those countries knows the answer to that question.
This column asks us to consider an alternate history in which other choices were made leading to more acceptable outcomes. It makes a good case that had Biden taken the route suggested the world would be better off. While we are considering such things, how much better off would the world be had we pressed the attack on bin Laden in Tora Bora? Or had George H. Bush not faked a cause to attack Iraq? There are many such actions by the US that appear in retrospect to be blunders. Blunders more obviously self-injurious than NATO expansion.
We risked nuclear war because USSR was placing weaponry in Cuba. . . 90 miles away. We have The Monroe Doctrine a/k/a Stay away. But we condemn a nation for objecting to encroachment on lands with which it has ancient ties and borders.
I admire the courage of the Ukrainians, but is world peace to be jeopardized because we have no respect for Russia's territorial concerns?
We created the crisis.
NATO did not force itself onto Eastern Europe any more than it is now forcing itself onto Sweden and Norway. What would have happened if NATO had refused to accept the countries of Eastern Europe into NATO? Everyone who lives in those countries knows the answer to that question.
The question is how to co-exist with a nation with comparable nuclear strength- neither a cold or hot war is the answer.
It is a challenge to be sure - Putin’s Stalin like regime is not to be deemed attractive, but how far do we meddle?
Was expanding NATO to Russia’s doorway wise and/or necessary?
I think not. Such ventures may yet cause it to explode. I hope not🙏