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NATO Expansion Is Aggression
Ron Paul
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Before the US House of Representatives, April
1, 2008: Statement on H Res 997 Expressing the strong support
of the House of Representatives for the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization to enter into a Membership Action Plan with Georgia
and Ukraine
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this resolution calling
for the further expansion of NATO to the borders of Russia. NATO
is an organization whose purpose ended with the end of its Warsaw
Pact adversary. When NATO struggled to define its future after
the Cold War, it settled on attacking a sovereign state, Yugoslavia,
which had neither invaded nor threatened any NATO member state.
This current round of NATO expansion is a political reward to
governments in Georgia and Ukraine that came to power as a result
of US-supported revolutions, the so-called Orange Revolution and
Rose Revolution. The governments that arose from these street
protests were eager to please their US sponsor and the US, in
turn, turned a blind eye to the numerous political and human rights
abuses that took place under the new regimes. Thus the US policy
of “exporting democracy” has only succeeding in exporting
more misery to the countries it has targeted.
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NATO expansion only benefits the US military industrial complex,
which stands to profit from expanded arms sales to new NATO members.
The “modernization” of former Soviet militaries in
Ukraine and Georgia will mean tens of millions in sales to US
and European military contractors. The US taxpayer will be left
holding the bill, as the US government will subsidize most of
the transactions. Providing US military guarantees to Ukraine
and Georgia can only further strain our military. This NATO expansion
may well involve the US military in conflicts as unrelated to
our national interest as the breakaway regions of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia in Georgia. The idea that American troops might be
forced to fight and die to prevent a small section of Georgia
from seceding is absurd and disturbing.
Mr. Speaker, NATO should be disbanded, not expanded.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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