NATO’s ‘Bridge’ to Ukraine Is a Ramp to Nowhere
Joe Biden and his 31 NATO allies are right that they need to do more to back Kyiv. Promising membership where none is possible is the wrong way to go.
Give him weapons, not bridges.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Metaphors are dangerous things, especially in matters of war and peace. That makes me dread the communique the 32 allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will issue this week to conclude their summit here in Washington. It will almost certainly contain some version of what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken previewed as “a bridge to membership” for Ukraine, “a bridge that’s strong and well-lit.”
A bridge is something you can fall off while attempting to cross a raging torrent. Well-lit or not, it’s a place between two banks and in the safety of neither. It’s also something that enemies try to blow up while you’re still building it; army types consider “wet gap crossings” among the most perilous operations in war.