Anatol Lieven has pointed out that not a single hawk during the Reagan
era (which today’s Democrats pretend to respect in counterpoint today’s
America First Republicans) imagined bringing Crimea under NATO
jurisdiction and evicting the Russian fleet from Sevastopol would be a
desirable or feasible goal for the West. ...
One can go back to the 1998 Senate debate over NATO enlargement, won
inevitably by the side promising greater profits for the military
industrial complex, to see its contours. That debate was spirited, and
we might take solace from the fact (unlike the present) that it took
place at all.
Opposing NATO expansion, Senator Daniel Moynihan, the last intellectual in American politics, warned “We’re walking into ethnic historical enmities. We have no idea what we’re getting into.” Taking Moynihan’s side, Republican senator John Warner of Virginia warned of antagonizing Russia by building an “iron ring” around it. And from whom came the most strident objection to Warner and Moynihan? According to the New York Times, Joseph Biden, “took the floor and erupted…stalking the Senate floor, flailing his arms….”
More.
