Fellow Bill Astore: “It’s truly shocking how often U.S. “commitment” to NATO, and indeed to countries and issues around the world, is expressed by profligate and prodigal weapons shipments.  The language of extreme violence is what passes for diplomacy today, and there’s nothing more extreme or violent than missile deployments that could well end in nuclear war.  Pointing even more missiles at Putin and essentially saying, “Go ahead, make my day,” is substituting Hollywood fake-tough-guy imagery for the serious work of lessening tensions and achieving peace through tough negotiations guided by moral courage.”

Fellow Karen Kwiatkowski: “The keywords of the NATO summit was stability and defense, yet every oral and written statement defines new enemies, demands expansion of NATO, and promotes instability.  This rehashed “containment” seems more appropriate for the 25th anniversary of NATO rather than the 75th.  NATO shows clear warning signs of age, a bad memory, increasingly poor judgment, and angry cane-waving.  US long range missiles to Europe (in 2026) is part of NATO’s US-driven and dominated expand or die mentality, and I hope much of this is panicked political hubris, given near-term expected changes of leadership among NATO member countries.”