New NATO Member
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a military alliance established by treaty on 4 April 1949. NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union forces present in post-World War II Europe. Original NATO members included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the US. Other nations followed suit: as of 2020 30 countries had signed the treaty.
The backbone of NATO is Article 5, the collective defense pact of members to provide mutual assistance to answer the risk that the Soviet Union and its satellite countries present.
The 31st member will join NATO Tuesday.
Membership bid of NATO country No. 31 reaches Finnish line
By JOHN VANDIVER
Finland’s flag will be raised for the first time at NATO headquarters Tuesday in Brussels, where leaders will welcome the Nordic country as the alliance’s newest member.
“It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole,” the organization’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, told reporters on the eve of a meeting of allied foreign ministers.
Finland will be welcomed into the U.S.-led security pact as NATO’s 31st member. The country’s entrance also means that NATO’s border with Russia will more than double, Stoltenberg said.
Sweden is next. This can’t be sitting well with Vlad and his cronies, and that’s just a shame. The purported reason for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was that county’s potential NATO membership. So welcome aboard, Finland. Believe there’s some history between them and Russia.
Finnish Winter War Sniper
Category: NATO, Russia, Schadenfreude
Actually the last time Finland was part of an alliance, the Finns called it the Continuation War. When they and the Germans attacked the USSR.
In the Winter War, the Finns on their own pretty much stymied and chewed up the Soviet units sent to invade.
No. After a heroic winter defense, the Finns were crushed in the Winter War.
The Bear getting surrounded on his western flank. Good thing he’s got his Chinese Buddies watching his 6. heh heh
Sum ting wonnnnng!
For the price of empty Finnland and rapidly islamic metamorphosis Sweden, we pushed the former enemies of Russia and China into an economic block that now trades outside the dollar and has pledged military support for each other. And, FYI, India, Brazil and Saudi Arabia are signing up too.
And you think that is a good deal. You have no clue how the world has changed and, for the west, not in a good way.
I wouldn’t exactly call what is going in Russia a raging success. They have essentially become a rump state of China. Their rapidly declining population prior to the invasion kicked into high gear after the invasion.
All the dead young people will now not have children and all the maimed will require a life time of care. Many will never recover and become productive members of the state. China will gradually expand northward until they occupy most of Asia. The Russia Military will never recover and they will be unable to protect the country from any incursions.
Putin was worried about how much border was NATO-adjacent.
It just doubled. Smooth move.
Chicoms lookin’ forward to annexing some of that “northern resource area” there.
Except…
China is imploding. Their birthrate is way under replacement. They are actually shrinking now.
China. Population shrinking.
That is an utter catastrophe for them. All their supposed might was based on the endless waves of men bearing arms, that no smaller nation could overcome.
They may not have enough left to take Siberia. Not and keep the homeland.
Yeah, nukes. Yeah, thry are now franticly msking more. India has a bunch, too. And they are still having babies.
China has a big problem. And as usual, they mask it with bravado. What happens if the bullied kid outgrows the bully?
They were working on that well before the vote to take Finland in, and Sweden is not there yet. As far as the Finns go, it is a good deal as they hate the Russians as much as the Poles do, and the Finns have an excellent and decent sized military. Because they learned from their dealings with the Russians.
I don’t know why you got down voted to shit as your summation is good.
Folks on this blog have a much cognitive dissonance, presuming a pathological jingoism self-defense mechanism may be at play.
Every single country NAT0 and/or the EU touches turns to shit, unless they pushback HARD. Hungry, Serbia, Czech, (parts of) Poland, (some political parties in) Germany, (many in) France…
They are lifting the banners, some the torches and molotovs, soon all the rifle.
Stop sucking globalist c*ck and plan accordingly.
Define “turning to shit”. Asking for lots of Eastern European friends who remember Soviet rule.
While you are at it, you should consider moving to Russia as much as you love it. I hear they have a sudden new opening for ultra-nationalist blogger/ Putin boot licker.
Bitch, I never condoned the RF’s war actions and violent threats.
Never will.
I don’t have a problem with nationalism, it was never a dirty word, right?
In the context of American Nationalism, it is a reverence to Constitutional precepts and pan-Liberalism.
What inherent mechanisms permit that to spread beyond our borderers? How does our fealty to the banker/globalist/military transnational order help the American Nation?
If you think you can answer these and not conflict with our nationalism, maybe its you that should leave?
Must have missed it. Didn’t see how the NATO states turned to shit in your fake mini rant.
Anyway I got you mixed up with the OTHER Roh-Dog that blamed the war on the people being invaded, said that Putin was justified in the war from his personal world point of view, if they have just surrendered and become a puppet state everything would have been okey-dokey and said Putin was going to take what he wanted right or wrong. Something about Jews being Nazis and other stuff I was unclear about, but kind of got the gist.
If you know where THAT guy is, please pass the above message along, sorry for the confusion.
Oh you are constant as the Northern Star…
I can understand both sides and remain faithfully agnostic about attribution of morality. If you want to conflate acknowledging motive as condoning it, I can’t help your deeply entrenched ignorance.
But I congratulate you in seeing the shadows of the broken system (your comments about auto inflation) but imho you’re failing to go macro and appreciate that we, ‘the collective west’, have handed our foes the ultimate weapon: our currency.
Who heats euro? Powers their factories?
Budapest will leave, or be asked to leave, and then dominos.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go pick up fiat tokens on the back of a failed europe.
Doom pays dividends.
I know it is tough for you to nail down facts. “When you ask who heats Europe and powers their factories?” It likely isn’t who you are positing.
A few examples: from 2020 level to today
Oil imports from Russia:
UK -(75%)
Germany -(99.9%)
France -(100%)
Italy (NA/ 0 Barrels)
Spain -(73%)
Switzerland (NA/ =.03% of all imports)
ETC
Gas Imports 21 to 23
In 2021 the EU imported 50% of it’s natural gas from Russia. By January 2023 it had declined to about 18.5% for the heating season. Most of the imports are to land locked countries that border or are near Central and Northern Russia. Pipelines are currently under construction to end that. It is estimated by the end of 2023 NG imports will be under 10%.
Then Russia can continue the act of self-fornication self-destructive behavior that it is currently engaged in in the Ukraine unabated. I do wonder though? When China moves in, and they will, will the UK and the US rush to save them as they did in WWII when Hitler turned on them? Because they did it to themselves.
Also, I don’t think you understand either side near as well as you proclaim.
They still have Steven Seagal.
Im surprised Vlad hasn’t put Seagal in a propaganda piece, where he is waddling around the battlefield lazily throat punching Ukrainian troops
Finland joined NATO on the whims of ditzy female Prime Minister without any national vote or referendum. And she was just voted out of office.
Also, to get to Article 5, you need to get through Article 1-4…you should read them sometime.
ok.
Article 1The Parties undertake, as set forth in the Charter of the United Nations, to settle any international dispute in which they may be involved by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered, and to refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
Article 2The Parties will contribute toward the further development of peaceful and friendly international relations by strengthening their free institutions, by bringing about a better understanding of the principles upon which these institutions are founded, and by promoting conditions of stability and well-being. They will seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them.
Article 3In order more effectively to achieve the objectives of this Treaty, the Parties, separately and jointly, by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid, will maintain and develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.
Article 4The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.
Looks good to me.
Looks like most of NATO needs to work on Article 3.
It’s funny, I seem to recall a president in the past that kept pointing that out. I don’t recall the name but think it rhymed with “hop, step and jump”. Now, increasing defense spending seems to be all the rage.
Oh great, we got another Lars on the horizon…
It’s a bot or an alt account. Not sure which.
Oh goody! NATO, which is basically the US, now has another thousand miles of border to defend, from a threat that exists mostly in the minds of aging, nostalgic, cold warriors and NATO bureaucrats who have a good thing going with the fantasy of a Russia bent on conquering Europe.
Not really. Finland can defend their own border. Russia is now incapable of invading.
Given another six months of average losses to date, and Russia will be lucky to be able to defend themselves.
Chicoms plan ahead.
“Finland can defend their own border.”
Then why do they need the help of NATO?
Nukes.
Why the fuck would Russia waste a nuke on Finland?
Middle finger to Russia.
Extra insurance that Russia doest try to “denazify” Finland
They are also forming a non-NATO local alliance against Russian adventures.
Because Russia has had so many “adventures” in Scandinavia in the last two or three hundred years.
And what is our reason for wanting to commit ourselves to defending miles and miles of strategically critical trees and snowdrifts?
Fantasy? Can you say ‘Crimea’ and ‘Ukraine’? I knew that you could.
Can you say “the fantasy of a Russia bent on conquering Europe.”?
Frankly, I don’t give a flying figleaf about Crimea or Ukraine, both of which were part of Russia for longer than the US has existed and neither of which is essential for the freedom and prosperity of the US or NATO.
And just a side note for those who think R.E.Lee et al. were traitors, what does that make Ukraine?
Winners.
The Soviet Union, which Ukraine was a part of, no longer exists. The Russia that exists today, that Putin claims is a completely different country and therefore he doesn’t have to honor the old agreements, the Ukraine was never a part of.
Russia has never tried to claim all of the Ukraine. They just want the parts with the Natural Gas and oil. Once the huge deposits were discovered in 2013 in the Crimea Basin and outside Donetesk it was on. They seized Crimea immediately and waited for a strong world response that never came because…. O’Bummer.
Russia then tried to take over the easy way through bribing Yanukovych in 2016. When that failed they would have invaded then but Trump was president at the time and they were wary. The day he left office they then began the huge military build up and Biden of course gave a green light to the invasion, because… dementia.
There isn’t anything complicated about all of this. It isn’t about Jewish Nazis and rebuilding the Soviet Union, those are fever dreams and proganda for the faithful. Anyone who believes that the Russian invasion was about anything other than a power and money grab for the gas and oil is a straight up idiot. That is why Russia “annexed” those provinces and even offered to come to the table. They think they have what they want. Keeping it is a whole other story.
Except…
Some Good Idea Fairy told Vad to try for a coup de main and take Kiev.
Oopsie.
Just spitballing here…
but I think they correctly identified what we in the US Military call the “Center of Gravity” for the Ukraine resistance which was Zelinsky. If he had been killed, captured or fled the country in the first few hours, days or weeks of the war it would have been game over and I think that is what they were going for; kill him or make him run. Honestly, I thought they would do a better job and he would be dead by now.
Like him or hate him Zelinsky rallied the troops, got loads of international support and has fought one hell of a war. He is no George Washington but he is quite a character. If they killed him now he would likely be a martyr and the Ukes would fight harder just to spite them.
The Russians (Putin) totally misunderstood
1) The Ukrainians
2) The Russians
They did not understand the Ukraine leadership, the armed forces, and the average U. Things had changed drastically from 2014. Either Russian Intel failed collosally or Putin wasn’t told. Who would have ever believed a former actor could rally a nation to toughen up and be willing to fight Russia?
Russian forces were unprepared for a long road sprint, despite a long buildup and opportunity to find things like dry-rotted tires. Those tires were a major red flag that other things had decayed. They also appear to have made the mistake of not reserving lanes for returning stuff and recovery vehicles passing. Again, someone didn’t act on realistic info on breakdowns.
It’s as if the Russians were led by dictator who was unforgiving of bad news. Also a bad case of post-victory chill-out from 2014.
The question now is, how soon can they force a “victory” at the table, so they can reconstitute the Army before someone else rolls the dice. Russia may not be this weak again for decades. Yeah, nukes. Yeah, dice.
They need a “Hooray! Make babies!” mood. Or they are essentially extinct in 30 years.
I think some folks may be tired enough of Russia to gamble, and be counting on the USA to counter the nukes.
Pity the opportunity has been missed. Early on, post Soviet Union, we should have offered NATO membership to Russia.
Funny eh?
We may instead wind up with a new Warsaw Pact, Poland-Finland and various other annoyed neighbors. They become a nuclear power within 10 years of such overt formation.
Putin’s successor may join. Hm.
And the fact that the population of the areas you mention have a significant, if not majority, pro-Russian, ethnic or Russian speaking population has nothing to do with the situation?
“The Russia that exists today, that Putin claims is a completely different country”
And three hundred years or so of shared history and culture simply vanish, eh? You might want to read about places like Alsace-Lorraine, or maybe Northern Ireland, or why the Scottish National Party is an actual thing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simo_H%C3%A4yh%C3%A4
All the hysteria has kind of died down now but JIC China gets any ideas this isn’t a bad idea.
Also humorous:
Russia sought to “de-nazifi” Ukraine.
Finland only recently removed the last swastikas off their air force.
…
Granted, they used it from 1918, well before the maniacs adopted it.
On the other hand, they were the only Axis-aligned country not occipied post-war.
Choosing to be conquered by Uncle Joe or ally with Adolph is a huge shit sandwich.
Finland’s alignment with Nazi Germany didn’t happen until after they were attacked by future Allied power Russia. Even then they refused to hand over any Finnish Jews to the Nazis and a few hundred fought in the military in view of the Nazis.
After handing over some Austrian Jews who were promptly murdered the government resigned and no more refuges were sent despite enormous pressure by Germany.
As soon as it appeared Germany was going to lose the war the Finns changed sides and fought the pseudo Lapland War against the Germans. The agreement though was that Finland would remain neutral after the war, and so they have, till now.
Finland’s decision there shows just how hated and feared the Soviet Union under Stalin was. The Germans raised a number of SS volunteer divisions from European countries that were only for fighting the Russians and Stalin during that war.
Every time I play the modern version of Allies in Axis and Allies I can’t win without Russia. If Russia loses.Moscow and Uncle Joe dies the Allies lose the game on capitol points.
So I guess they did what they had to do to win.
“Choosing to be conquered by Uncle Joe or ally with Adolph”
In 1941 Finland was at peace with Russia. Had Russia wanted to conquer Finland they would have occupied it in the Winter War, as they later occupied the Baltic countries. Finland joined the Nazis because it wanted the return of territory Russia had taken in the Winter War, not to avoid conquest. And even after WWII, after Finland had helped the Nazis, Russia chose to leave Finland as an independent country. What has changed to make Russia a threat to Finland?
Uncle Joe never trusted Hitler. He had no reason to. So in 1941 he knew he had to have all of his forces on line to stop him. An occupation of Finland would have served no purpose with the bulk of the Wehrmacht bearing down on him up the middle. And indeed Hitler invaded in June. Who was surprised? Mel Brooks, Roh Dog and Betrand Russell (although the last two might be the same person).
Russia didn’t want to mess with Finland at the end of the war because they wanted to get to Berlin before the West. Once Finland threw in with them and declared neutrality they sent all their troops to Germany. The Baltic States OTOH were full of millions of Germans.
If recent history is any guide all Finland has to do to have Russia as an enemy is have something that Putin wants. That will move them to next on the list.
Oil
Steel
Automotive and electronics manufacture
Vast reserves of wood.
Shipyards that build very large ships
And hornets. Lots and lots of hornets.
“The Baltic States OTOH were full of millions of Germans.”
In 1940?
You still have not answered my question, why would the Russian want to conquer Finland and/or Sweden now? Your mind-reading and speculation are not convincing.
Summer training in Finland?
Lovers of war and destroyers of man, march toward the negation of millions…
and the peasants clap.
The upcoming war, this very much avoidable one, will kill your kin while these monsters sit in deep Strangelovian holes, wringing their hands with the dream of expunging every unless eater from their planet.
This isn’t then, this is now and you idiots can’t see, or handle, the rapidly shifting sands.
These *ssholes:
Nothing new in Europe. The Romans temporarily suspended the worst of the fratricide, (for certain values of “suspend”) only for it to metastasize when the empire got too distracted with, wait for it, fratricide.
The current “union” there is about done, and the teams are about to find out just how ugly things can get when you start a regional war as a pickup game. Oh wait. They can’t be that stupid again, right?
Right?
Russia is already in the “suicide” camp. They just haven’t grasped the math yet. They may endure, but they will not be anything but a shadow, absent a wave of new babies.
Necessity is about to respawn “war machine”, but this time with different accents.
How about a Polish-Finn axis? Neither has forgotten being badly treated by their neighbors. And both seem to be stepping up to the plate with rather large and capable teams.
High likelihood they will soon call upon neighbors to play ball. And it won’t be called “NATO”.
Popcorn?
I’m thinking that fighting is better than your white flag, loser philosophy. Personally I have nothing against Russians. I just don’t want to be ruled by them. Different strokes and all.
“I just don’t want to be ruled by them.”
Oh, puh-leeze.
You have watched ‘Red Dawn’ entirely too often–it is not a documentary, you know.
But Roh says if we fight back it’s our fault. I imagine he thinks rape works the same way.
Putin is such a fuck up.
Forced a result he claims he needed to invade Ukraine to prevent. The expansion of NATO.