You served in the american millitary during the cold war but don't think that the countries that were beind the iron curtain should have been allowed to join nato?

That's... interesting.

I’ll ignore your lame…rhetorical method and address your point. No, they should not join NATO. When we all die in a nuclear holocaust I will have the comfort of knowing it was all Purim’s fault.

For what its worth I don't intend it as a rhetorical method, it really does seem like a disconnect from what I'm familliar with. My experience living in europe is that when I do meet folks from romania/poland/lithuania/estonia etc are viruently anti-russia, and pro eu/nato - almost disconcertingly so. Especially because they see their own governments as corrupt (I can't say whether they are right) and seem to look to these other organisations to save them from that.

I don't know what point that serves, but I do find it difficult to see membership as something imposed on them. If they weren't allowed to join, I don't really know where that would go?

> You served in the american millitary during the cold war

To this day, Fulda Gap Defense is a part of US military practice in Europe. Most people that work for a NATO flagged unit practice this also.

> but don't think that the countries that were beind the iron curtain should have been allowed to join nato?

First of all, US leaders from the past have made numerous promises not to extend NATO that far East.

When you take what was intended to be a defensive alliance and extend it right up to a potential enemy's doorstep, inside their missile defense early warning shield, when you foment a number of color revolutions in another country's sphere of influence (Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, etc), and threaten their sphere of control, you are not just on the path to war, you are provoking it.