The XX Factor: What women really think.

Palin Takes Acetylene Torch to Cold War

We still have about 150,000 troops in Iraq, and it's not clear how or when we're going to get them out. Meanwhile, our top military commanders are telling us we urgently need more troops in Afghanistan, where we've been losing ground and taking increased casualties. So this would be a great time to casually contemplate war with Russia, wouldn't it?

Of course it would!  Today, we fire up the Cold War, courtesy of Sarah Palin:

Palin: [Ukraine and Georgia] deserve to be in NATO....
ABC's Charlie Gibson:  And under the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
Palin ALIN: Perhaps so.

(Hey, we're already in two wars—what would be so wrong with a third? Let's go nuclear this time!)

Sorry—but that's not taking a "hard line" with Russia. That's taking a naive, dangerously irresponsible, nearly insane line. Sane candidates trying to show they're "ready" for the presidency don't chat cavalierly on national TV about pursuing a policy that would "perhaps" obligate the United States to go to war with the world's largest nuclear power.

Just as Palin did not appear to be familiar with the Bush Doctrine during her intervew with Gibson, she didn't appear very familiar with the NATO treaty or what specific acts it might or might not require of the United States on behalf of an ally [the treaty requires parties to "assist" a NATO ally that has been attacked but does not mandate any particular form of assistance]. And she sure sounded like she'd never thought for more than a millisecond about the potential consequences of the policy she was urging, nor of the consequences of the war with Russia we might "perhaps" be obligated to undertake.

(Hint: not good.)