Political Quotes

“10 days ago in a column appearing in the Washington Post, Charles Krauthammer wrote: By ruling Central Europe out of bounds to Russia, NATO expansion takes one of this century's fatal temptations off the table. It is the easiest U.S. foreign policy call of the decade. Why is it the easiest foreign policy call of the decade? Because the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for 50 years has preserved the peace of Europe and the peace of the United States. As a result of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Soviet Union literally ceased to exist. All of this was accomplished by a military alliance that never was required to fight or to sacrifice its young men and women in a military conflict within the bounds of that organization. Why did the North Atlantic Treaty Organization come into existence in the first place? Because the first half of this century showed that both world wars began in Central Europe because of the weakness, the instability, the unsettled nature of the former empires and the then national states in that part of Europe, occupied almost wholly by the Soviet Union at the end of World War II. The West could only be defended by a military organization of which the United States was a part. Behind the magnificent defensive line, the parapets, built by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Western Europe became free, democratic, and prosperous.”