Resolving NATO's Existential Crisis

Here's the bottom line, my friends:

NATO is not directed against anybody, certainly not against Russia. -- Angela Merkel

THEN WHAT IS IT DOING??? I'm the last person to argue that NATO or Europe or America should be seeking out enemies around the world to justify NATO's continued existence and endless expansion. And I'm among the first to insist that the last place NATO should aim its guns is Russia. But NATO as tits on a bull should appall everyone.

For that reason, paleoconservatives (see Larison, Daniel) still call for the outright dissolution of the military alliance. The point of NATO was to fight the Soviet Union, right? And now that that's over, so should be NATO, right?

I'm a little too pomo for all that. It's about time someone stood up and admitted two important things: Russia poses no threat to Europe, and Europe faces an existential threat from mass Muslim extremism. Now, only a crazy person would suggest using NATO to smash up Europe's dangerous Islamic ghettos. But this counter-reverie should snap us out of our current collective daydream. Aside from Afghanistan, NATO should have one mission and one mission alone: providing local security as Europe moves with the greatest haste to develop its own military, close up its internal swiss-cheese-holes, and consolidate its political unity. For this reason, Albania and Croatia absolutely belong in NATO, whereas Ukraine and Georgia absolutely do not. Would that more conservatives had the nimbleness of mind to get this.

NATO came into being to prevent Europe from disappearing as an independent pole of world power. It can bequeath Europe -- and America -- no better gift than the fulfillment of its mission.