Obama statement on Georgia NATO membership?
From Obama's website:
"I have consistently called for deepening relations between Georgia and transatlantic institutions, including a Membership Action Plan for NATO, and we must continue to press for that deeper relationship. "
and,
Barack Obama believes the process of NATO enlargement – which has helped countries throughout Central and Eastern Europe become more stable and democratic – should continue so long as new candidates for membership are democratic, peaceful, and willing to contribute to our common security.
Is this a good idea, given that both Russia and Georgia seem hell-bent on controlling both the Ossetian and Abkazian regions? If Georgia had already received NATO membership, as McCain's lobbyist minions were pushing for, we would now have a treaty obl;igation to defend the country from Russia, even though we have neither the national interest in Georgia nor the ability to interpose a meaningful force to secure that country's borders.
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Freakin' blockquotes are really starting to tick me off. TPM, tear down this interface!
August 13, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
Finally found the link again.
http://www.barackobama.com/2008/08/11/statement_of_senator_barack_ob_22.php
August 13, 2008 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't like it, but I'd need to know exactly what are the requirements that would have to be met under "Membership Action Plan". McCain says he'd vote to include Georgia now. Bombing a break-away province isn't likely to meet requirements.
I don't think you could come out and say "No, not under any circumstances". Because then it would give countries nothing to strive for.
Also by not taking such a possibility off the table, it can be used as a negotiation chip with Russia.
Simply put Russia will not allow it, and the European countries are not warm to the idea at all either. Georgia wants NATO as a bodyguard, so they can pick a fight with the bully on the block and then have NATO fight for them. Europe wants no part of that, and while Bush/McCain likely sold Georgia a bill of goods, I don't think Obama will push the issue nearly as much as Bush has been and McCain has pledged to.
August 13, 2008 1:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is my man, and I don't want to concern troll or anything.
Isn't Obama in charge of the Senate Committee on Europe or European relations...?
Couldn't he actually get some things done in D.C., instead of being on vacation?
GWB decided not to go on vacation, because of this very issue..
Maybe I should blog about this.
August 13, 2008 2:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
By every definition I've ever seen, Europe stops at the Caucasus Mountains.
Georgia is in Asia.
And while we're talking geography, how far can you be from the Atlantic Ocean and still be a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization?
August 13, 2008 4:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
psh. bothering with trifles like geography. turkey is in the eu, and yet it's aka asia minor. georgia is more western than asian anyway.
NATO's has forces in Afghanistan, so the Atlantic's boundary isn't the limit of the org's sphere.
August 13, 2008 8:15 PM | Reply | Permalink