Kay Bailey Hutchison: “I believe this Senate will not vote on a more important matter than the one before the Senate this week. The advocates…”

“I believe this Senate will not vote on a more important matter than the one before the Senate this week. The advocates of unfettered enlargement of NATO argue that we are expanding the frontiers of freedom in Europe. It is true that freedom won the cold war. But the spirit of that freedom was the American commitment to defend Europe against the Soviet Union. Therefore, at the heart of this debate is a simple question: Is the United States prepared to add countries to the list of those that we pledge to defend as we would our own shores? In answering that question, the Senate should look to the future. Instead, many supporters of the resolution have been talking about the past. They have argued, not without merit, that expanding NATO is necessary to correct the map of Europe that was drawn incorrectly at the end of World War II. And many argue that it is right and just that these three countries before us today become part of the West, since the West turned its back on them at Yalta more than half a century ago. I think the Senate should be looking to the future to decide if this idea is the right one at this time.”