#1. For 45 years, the geographic distance between CCCP and NATO was anywhere between roughly 3” inches, all the way up to approximately 150 yards. Not 30, 50, 250 miles.
***So,.. what’s your point, other than simple browbeating?
((And that was with CCCP and its Warsaw Pact tipping out at near 55,000 nuclear warheads, 67,000 tanks, more than 70,000 armored infantry fighting vehicles, and over 71,000 artillery guns. Except or nuclear warheads, in each category, NATO was outnumbered anywhere from 8-10 to 1 ( or more), on a border which was only feet from CCCP. The only thing keeping Moscow from rapidly smashing all of Europe was MAD, and US nuclear artillery. Thankfully, God raised up Reagan, whi crushed CCCP with finance and trade policy, there would be a necessary CCCP transition to CIS, and there has been reprieve.
***Useless, bloviating, browbeating, pointless straw argument commentating. It probably doesn’t even have much relevance to our discussion.
#2. NATO has not admitted a nation since 2004.
***So what? It makes little difference to me.
#3. While NATO has an “anyone is welcome to apply policy”, NATO membership requires UNANIMOUS CONSENT for membership, and several prominent EU nations have preemptively said no to Ukraine membership (multiple times), specifically because of the large 9 nation, Kremlin controlled CIS
***Please define CIS. It’s poor form to use an undefined acronym.
military threat, and it’s strong Beijing/Moscow alliance which has existed since 2009/2010, but now publically recognized in the past month.
***You’re maybe, possibly, imaginably going somewhere with this.
#4. Ukraine did begin the NATO “MAP” process required for all applicants, but didn’t apply for NATO membership until Russia took Eastern Ukraine and Crimea in 2014.
***Again, you’re going somewhere, some tedious place, with all this....
After Moscow took the Donbass region and it’s rich resources, and Crimea, nearly 74% of the population wanted NATO membership, over double the number from 2008.
***MEGO: Mine Eyes Glaze Over.
Specific to this point,
***You haven’t really MADE a point yet.
Putin ignited public and subsequent political motivation in favor of NATO across Ukraine.
***Yeah, by invading it. From Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations
since the Russo-Ukrainian War and Annexation of Crimea, public support for Ukrainian membership in NATO has risen greatly..... 69% of Ukrainians want to join NATO, according to a June 2017 poll by the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, compared to 28% support in 2012 when Yanukovych was in power.[24]
It is a detached individual and society which looks from a far off, and judges the people being bombed, rocketed, shelled, burned, eliminated, and their nation wiped out.
***Again: Somewhere in here you’re making a point. But your writing is so torturous I can’t even see your point. Take a writing class.
Interesting what fear and desperation can do to a population
***Perhaps I should have read your last sentence first. You seem to have just generated a bunch of stream-of-consciousness stuff without really much of a point.
Hold your water, partner. Times they are a-changing. But, one must seriously consider if our army would get of its ass without an OK from the CDC, permission from BLM, a note from the NEA, and at least several court orders from differing Federal district courts. Do we even know who our commander-in-chief is when when we don’t even know who controls the White House? Does the army have to consult Nancy Pelousy? What about EPA Climate Impact Studies on the effects of potential movement and action. Have Gender Impacts been assessed and do we have enough portable safe spaces for the troops.
On second thought it might be more effective if we sent the Boy Scouts - no that won’t work, Ed, just sit this one out.