Victor Davis Hanson on NATO’s Barren Vine on National Review Online

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmNlNzY2ZmExMjUyNWE0ZDUxNDk5NzMyNzcxYWIwMTU=&w=MQ==

There is much talk that, had Georgia been a NATO member, Russia might not have attacked it. The truth is far worse. Even if Georgia had belonged to NATO, no European armed forces would have been willing to die for Tbilisi. Remember the furor in 2003 when some NATO countries — angry at the United States — tried to preempt support to member Turkey had Saddam's Iraq retaliated against Ankara for the American invasion to remove him?

The well-intended but ossified alliance keeps offering promises to new members that are weaker, poorer, and in more dangerous and distant places — while its old, smug founding states are ever more unlikely to honor them.