Set It Up Nicely

As our pipsqueak of a President talks big at the NATO summit NPR is there to help our little tyrant shine his "legacy." As Bush pushes for greater NATO expansion, a thinking person might judge this a good time to question the policy of US/NATO triumphalism and aggressive expansion. Way back in 1998 the "No to NATO expansion Speakers Tour" managed to find a range of critics. Stephen F. Cohen has noted how the US/NATO post Cold War policy represents a tragic, lost opportunity, and in a 2006 article in The Nation he writes,

"The real US policy has been very different--a relentless, winner-take-all exploitation of Russia's post-1991 weakness. Accompanied by broken American promises, condescending lectures and demands for unilateral concessions, it has been even more aggressive and uncompromising than was Washington's approach to Soviet Communist Russia."

Mark Ames, a US reporter living in Russia has also noted the dangers of the US/NATO divide and conquer strategy toward Russia.

On the NPR piece we get to hear plenty from the decider:

• "NATO should welcome Georgia and Ukraine into the membership action plan, and NATO membership must remain open to all of Europe's democracies that seek it."
• "I will reiterate that the missile defense capabilities we are developing are not designed to defend against Russia — just as the new NATO we are building is not designed to defend against Russia. The Cold War is over. Russia is not our enemy."

And then for analysis, where does NPR turn? Why, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Robert Hunter! Now that is some daring journalism! I hope Michele Kelemen gets her medal; she tells us that "as for the President's speech, Hunter gives him high marks for recognizing NATO's importance at his last summit of the alliance." And then we get to hear the great Hunter himself:

"The rest of the world is looking to American leadership, and I think he set it up very nicely for the next President — whichever of the three becomes president — because they're going to have a lot of work to do in common."

All's well in the empire...