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OPINION: NATO: Expand or Disband
Sunday, May 5, 2002
(7:40 PM)
The Florida Times-Union

Russia, perhaps more than any other nation in the world, has been helpful -- not only providing important intelligence for the Afghan war but, more recently, cooperating with a U.S. mission to teach anti-terrorism tactics in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

NATO officials are on the right track when they say their organization would have more relevance if they were to join forces with their old enemy, Russia, and concentrate on fighting terrorism.

They need either to do that or disband. NATO was created as a mutual defense organization, to protect Western Europe from an expansionist Soviet Union. But the Cold War is over, the Soviet Union no longer exists and its remnants are no threat. NATO's mission has been accomplished.

Terrorism is a menace, however. Islamic radicals don't want just to kill Americans and annihilate the nation of Israel. They want to destroy the West altogether and eventually make the entire world into a grand utopia resembling Taliban-era Afghanistan.

In the minds of Islamic radicals, Europe is as decadent as the United States -- and it's much closer geographically, which makes it an inviting target.
(More: The Florida Times-Union News Source)
2002 © The Florida Times-Union.

Dan