Re:NSA Spied on Denmark as It Chose Its Future Fighter Aircr...
by lumberjack on Thursday November 19, 2020 @04:44AM
(#25147819)
Americans won't know this history. They also don't know that weak countries prefer to remain neutral rather than join NATO. Joining NATO also makes you a target. US tried hard to get everyone to join, including a fair bit of meddling in nation politics.
Despite this neither Finland nor Sweden are in NATO.
Re:NSA Spied on Denmark as It Chose Its Future Fighter Aircr...
by jabl on Thursday November 19, 2020 @06:22AM
(#25148398)
Finland not being in NATO is more a result of it's successful strategy of surviving the cold war by sitting on the fence playing both sides [1]. Since the collapse of the USSR and Finland joining the EU the situation is quite different, but old habits, particularly successful ones, are hard to shake.
[1] One can of course speculate what would have happened if the cold war would have turned hot. Would ostensibly neutral Finland have been left alone, or would both NATO and the Warsaw Pact have nuked it just to be sure. Or would the massive nuclear strikes on the nearby Murmansk and Leningrad areas have caused such massive fallout that it would have been a moot point anyway?
That "treaty" was pushed to European nations, mafia style, and voted in by right-wing parties and politicians (sometimes right-wing to the point of dictatorship), in the Cold War era, as protection against USSR.
It's still pushed now through diplomatic pressure, profitable handouts to vote in favor, etc., not because those nations really want it.