New NATO Forms As Tired, Old NATO Punts

Thursday: Good news for John McCain. Lieberman is making the Dems squirm a bit.

From Wednesday's IBD editorial page entitled NATO Punts:

"The cutting edge of Europe's defense perimeter is no longer Germany, France or Britain; it's Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, the Baltic nations, Ukraine and Georgia.

The U.S. can no longer support a defense treaty whose main goal is merely to let Old Europe enlarge its welfare state at our expense. The U.S. defense tab this year will be close to $670 billion, more than half again what the EU and Britain spend combined.

America has an interest in keeping former captive nations of the USSR free and looking West. Letting Russia get away with the rape of a neighbor is unacceptable. Europe is wrong in this, as it was wrong in its feeble responses to Iraq, Afghanistan and, more recently, Iran.

NATO's capitulation means the U.S. should begin forging new defense ties with the New Europe in a true coalition of the willing. Call it the New NATO. The old one doesn't work anymore."