Word: nato
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...their letter the 20 Senators said they were not supporting or opposing the proposal to expand NATO, but they advised Clinton that a lot of "contentious" matters would have to be debated when they take up the issue. "I don't think there's organized opposition," says Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Texas who circulated the letter, "but I do think there's a growing group of questioners...
They want to know what military threat NATO expansion is designed to counter, how it will strengthen stability in Europe, and whether U.S. lives will have to be risked to deal with "border, ethnic, nationalist and religious disputes" in Central Europe. "I'm not convinced we should be part of an alliance that says the U.S. should go to war to protect a couple little countries most Americans haven't heard of," says Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy...
...Senators ask, should the new democracies be forced to spend more money for tanks and fighters when they should be improving their roads and water supplies? Most of all, they want to know how much it will cost to bring former Warsaw Pact armies up to NATO standards and whether the European members, present and future, can be counted on to pay their share. "What are we getting ourselves into in terms of costs?" asks Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin...
...many more questions and apparent contradictions. The biggest threat to the world's security is the spread of weapons of mass destruction, and one of the items atop America's agenda is the reduction of strategic nuclear missiles. But, says Jack Matlock, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, moving NATO to the east "is going to make it much more difficult to negotiate the reduction of these nuclear weapons...
...Europe are economic: the pain and stress of transforming their economies and politics after communism. And yet the first major initiative from the West is membership in a military alliance. What they really need is membership in the European Union. That is not happening because the Europeans think offering NATO membership is easier and cheaper for them. After the nonprogress at last month's E.U. summit in Amsterdam, it is clear that its expansion will be smaller and slower than the Americans, and the new applicants, had hoped...