Tom Lantos: “NATO has been the cornerstone of American security for two generations. NATO has been the essence of our defense…”

“NATO has been the cornerstone of American security for two generations. NATO has been the essence of our defense strategy vis-a-vis our most formidable opponent since the end of the Second World War, the Soviet Union, and it takes a great deal of naivete to assume that new threats might not reemerge on the Eurasian continent aimed at our allies and indeed the United States. Expanding NATO and continuing to fund NATO perhaps in a more proportional fashion, as my friend from Massachusetts recommends, is very much in the American national security interests, and to send a message at this stage that the United States wishes to cut back its NATO commitment would be the most suicidally shortsighted gesture of U.S. defense and foreign policy. I strongly urge my colleagues to reject the notions presented by my good friend from California.”