A Popular Bad Idea

Expanding NATO comes with risks as well as costs

What has NATO done for us lately? Serbs are slaughtering ethnic Albanians in Kosovo while the alliance shrugs off American demands to get tough with Belgrade. When Albania collapsed into chaos and automatic gunfire last year, NATO managed to do precisely nothing. In Bosnia the European allies dithered for years until the U.S. insisted on bombing the Serbs. But in Washington last week, where the Senate voted to bring three new members into NATO, supporters attributed magical qualities to the alliance, including the power to make the whole Continent peaceful and prosperous. Bill Clinton said the inclusion of the Czech Republic,...

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