From the Editors of the Washington Times:  Some bad national security ideas refuse to go away. One of the worst of them floating around the last 20 years is the notion that Russia should be offered membership in the NATO alliance. This is an idea whose time will never come. …

The Obama administration has shown an uncomfortable degree of deference to Russia on most security issues, whether missile defense, nuclear arms or the Iranian nuclear program. Pressing the "reset button" on U.S.-Russian policy is a catchy slogan but has little strategic underpinning. Washington and Moscow have few common interests; holding out hope for NATO membership may wrongly be seen as a means of increasing American leverage. …

Having Russia as a member state of NATO would eviscerate the organization. Russia could be counted on to be obstructionist where U.S. interests are concerned, as it has been in the United Nations and other multinational organizations. Russia’s main interest in NATO would be to control it, disrupt it and detach the United States from it. The Eastern European member states would view Moscow’s entry as a betrayal. And since cooperation with Russia is possible outside of the NATO framework, such as in maintaining supply lines to International Security Assistance Force troops in Afghanistan, there is zero benefit to having Moscow inside NATO’s tent.  (photo:  AP)

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