In a Nov. 25 op-ed in The Hill on Nov. 25, Bruce Fein, who was Assistant Deputy Attorney General in the Reagan administration, called on Congress to enact a statute to pull the U.S. out of NATO, which would very quickly calm down the military conflict in Ukraine. Fein is the author of American Empire Before the Fall. The coverage in Sputnik news service also characterized Fein as “an international law specialist and outspoken critic of U.S. wars of aggression abroad from George W. Bush to Barack Obama.”
In his op-ed, Fein states, “At the very latest, NATO became obsolete in 1991 when its raison d’être—the Soviet Empire—dissolved. By remaining in NATO and spearheading its expansion to Russia’s borders with 30 members, the United States provoked President Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. It was poised to join NATO to fortify the encirclement of an already-diminished Russia constituting a greater existential threat to it than the existential threat the Cuban missile crisis posed to the United States.
“By withdrawing from NATO, Congress would end the existential threat that occasioned Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and extinguish the executive branch’s ambition for regime change or weakening Russia. The United States is NATO’s locomotive and the other members collectively the caboose. Congressional withdrawal would permit Putin to save face if he ended Russia’s military and political debacle in Ukraine by asserting that his war aim had been achieved.”
He pointed out that America has done this before—in 1798, Congress nullified a defense treaty with France by statute. This effort was led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and his supporters in the Federalist Party.
Fein also stated that the U.S. is on track to spend more than over $100 billion on Ukraine in less than a year.
Unfortunately, he seriously miscalculated the war danger, characterizing Russia as a military “paper tiger,” for which reason he asserts, “Russia is no military threat to Europe’s NATO members.” (Which is true from the standpoint of the Russian Federation’s political policy, as President Putin has stated, not least because of its advanced defense capabilities.)
He concluded: “Congress would burnish its own image and be lauded as peacemakers worldwide if it set in motion the termination of the Ukraine war by a statute ending United States NATO membership. It would also begin a desperately needed challenge to an imperial presidency.” (https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3750203-congress-should-end-the-war-in-ukraine-by-withdrawing-from-nato/ )
