Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9912794
While a US commitment that NATO would not expand towards Russia was made during talks with the Soviets in 1990, and remains a topic of heated dispute, no undertaking was written into the treaty on German reunification.
If it doesn’t have signatures, it isn’t a treaty.
After the USSR disbanded, many former soviet & warsaw pact countries lobbied to join NATO and were eventually accepted. They had experienced russian control, and they never wanted it again.
Relations between russia and the west were relatively good for a while, until putin decided he needed an enemy for his domestic politics. He probably should have chosen china. :-P
With Finland and Sweden, russia now has 10% land border with NATO countries. That is far from encirclement, as they sometimes propagandize.
Why did these countries join now and not earlier? Well, that should be obvious. Domestic opinion changed in their democracies, and neutrality was no longer seen as viable. Once again, existing NATO members welcomed new voluntary members to their ranks. 💪
So now that russia has a longer border with NATO member countries, it must be scared, right?
Wrong, russia is reducing military personnel and equipment along the Finnish border, and sending them to Ukraine instead.
NATO is not the aggressor, but it is a military powerhouse, and only getting stronger.
Also, NATO did not “expand its territories”. Sovereign countries that saw the Russian aggression seeked membership to be protected.
Correct.
Due to our location, we Finns did our best for a very long time to keep up good relations with Russia / Soviet Union. And for some time, it benefited us greatly with the commerce options it opened, but the price we had to pay was our diminished sovereingty.
That yoke was finally broken when the USSR fell and we joined the EU few years later. Some politicians tried to open a discussion about joining NATO, but the popular opinion was strongly against it and it was never considered seriously until Russia attacked Ukraine.
Then, like our former president stated, “The masks have come off, only the cold face of war remains”. And faced with the fact that Putin revealed himself to be a totally unhinged megalomaniac, our nation’s attitude towards NATO changed almost overnight.
Our defense forces are quite capable, but we will never again wish to go to war without allies. We could field an army of 900 000 troops if all the reserves were activated, and even after that there would be thousands of men in their 70’s that would gladly take up arms to defend our land from the horror that is “Russkiy Mir”.
If Putin is not stopped at Ukraine, he will continue attacking countries that were under control of the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire. He is an old man willing to happily sacrifice as many men he needs to fulfill his delusional fantasy. And this cannot be allowed.
@Lorindol @sic_1
This was very enlightening to a Californian, thank you for writing it!
@Donjuanme @Lorindol
@jbloggs777 @0x815
NATO has huge problems. Not least the horrible complexity of moving men and armour to the East. It’s a logistical nightmare.
You don’t have to mention people when replying.
It does that when you reply from Mastodon.
Is it possible to have it not do that?
I’m not sure. It may be required so that users on the Mastodon side know that there’s a reply.
But then I’m not familiar enough with the Fediverse to be sure.
If it weren’t for those pesky kidsHHHHfarmers. Seriously, of course NATO has problems. It has dubious members, it has to deal with domestic politics, it has to fund itself build out & maintain a military production base, it needs to be capable of fighting & responding just in case, and most of all it needs to be an effective deterrant. It will never be perfect, and hopefully it never needs to be.
I’m very glad to see security finally being taken seriously in Europe … even if it has been slow to get moving. The coming decades and centuries are going to be rough (and would have been w/o russia’s latest land-grab), and relying on the US security umbrella for european security is not ideal. They will likely remain an important partner though, douchebag presidents or not.
@jbloggs777
The US is an NPC.