WASHINGTON -- The 19 members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have gathered in Rome to initiate a new partnership with Russia; they are also planning to add several new members to the alliance. The usual fatuous rhetoric emanating from the meeting cannot hide the fact that NATO is an organization in search of a purpose and actually diminishes U.S. security.
For four decades NATO was the quintessential anti-Soviet alliance. When the Berlin Wall fell, the Warsaw Pact dissolved, and the Soviet Union collapsed, NATO lost its raison d'etre. For the last decade NATO officials, demonstrating that there is no such thing as a temporary government program, have been attempting to develop alternative missions for the alliance.
Their original suggestions were comical--protect the environment, combat drug abuse, promote student exchanges. All that was missing was an initiative to turn tanks into bookmobiles.