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Originally posted by Albany Rifles
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I think he means that Austria is basically the sole remaining European nation that could easily join NATO if it wanted (Switzerland and Serbia are non-starters of course...did I miss any others?)
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.” -
I see says the blind man!Originally posted by TopHatter View Post“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark TwainComment
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I could be TOTALLY off base though...Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”Comment
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Nope! You were spot on. I'd just like to see that little hole in the map of NATO members plugged.Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
I could be TOTALLY off base though...If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.Comment
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Oh hell NO, we do not need anymore hockey teams in the NATO round robin.Originally posted by Monash View Post
ChimoComment
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Nah...they suck. Most Austrians have never played and they haven't even cracked the international top 10 since the 1990s I believe...Originally posted by Officer of Engineers View Post“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark TwainComment
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https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20221128-we-humiliated-ourselves-sweden-s-bid-to-join-nato-meets-continued-resistance-from-turkey
Vlad the Putz must be laughing his ass off!!!'We humiliated ourselves': Sweden’s bid to join NATO meets continued resistance from Turkey
His lackey has not only stymied the addition of two countries,
whose membership would only strengthen the Baltic and Northern flank from further Russian aggression.
He’s also causing what can only be considered as dissention in an alliance,
whose strength is supposed to be unity against a common enemy!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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https://www.politico.eu/article/rece...to-membership/
With his latest declaration Erdogan has confirmed his allegiance to Putin’s Russia!
His demand that Finland and Sweden turn over a hundred political opponents to Turkey, is his tribute to Russia!
He knows full well that his demands can not be acceded to by the two Nordic countries, for the simple reason it would contravene their own legislation.
So his kibosh demands are simply a fig leaf he is using to hide his true allegiance!
The sad fact is that his intransigence means that these two nations; whose inclusion that could only benefit NATO will be denied acceptance!!!
Something that can only be interpreted as a win for Russia!
There’s a certain consensus among commentators that he is using his hardline to gain some cookie points with the Turkish electorate
up to the Turkish General Election later this year. That he will relent and compromise, when the election is over.
Really???
Like his Master in the Kremlin, he has crawled out on a limb, and as an Autocrat he will have a hard time crawling back!
He has taken an old Star Trek meme; the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the one, and turned it on its head, to become the Autocratic:
The Wants of the One, outweighs the Needs of the Many!!!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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Finland to stick with Sweden in NATO bid, hopes for green light by July
HELSINKI (Reuters) -Finland is sticking to its plan to join NATO at the same time as Nordic neighbour Sweden, and hopes to do so no later than July, Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said on Monday.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join NATO following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey raised objections.
The three countries signed an agreement in Madrid over a way forward, but last week, Turkey suspended talks after protests in Stockholm that included the burning of a Koran.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan signalled on Sunday that Ankara could agree to Finland joining NATO ahead of Sweden and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Monday made similar statements.
However, Haavisto said Finland will stick with Sweden, its closest military partner, during the application process.
"Our strong wish is still to join NATO together with Sweden," Haavisto told a news conference in Helsinki.
"We have underlined to all our future NATO partners, including Hungary and Turkey, that Finnish and Swedish security go together," he said.
A spokesperson for Sweden's foreign ministry declined to comment.
Of NATO's 30 members, only Turkey and Hungary are yet to ratify the Nordic countries' membership applications.
Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Turkey in May and many analysts believe that it will be hard to make progress before that.
But Haavisto said he still hoped Finland and Sweden would become NATO members in the next few months.
"I still see the NATO summit in Vilnius in July as an important milestone when I hope that both counties will be accepted as NATO members at the latest," Haavisto said.
Finland and Sweden had been hoping for a rapid accession process and were taken by surprise by Turkey's objections.
Turkey wants Sweden, in particular, to take a clearer stance against what it sees as terrorists, mainly Kurdish militants and a group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt in Turkey.
Sweden has said it takes Turkey's security concerns seriously and is implementing the three-way agreement signed in June last year, but Ankara says it is not doing enough.
That has led to speculation Finland - which shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia - could proceed without Sweden.
But Haavisto said security assurances from the United States, Britain and other NATO members meant that Finland could be patient.
"We appreciate those security assurances very much even if we understand that it is not the same as the NATO Article 5, but it is very important for us," he said.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, NATO's founding document, commits all members to mutual defence, stating that an attack against one is an attack against all.
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“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”Comment
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U.S. Congress says F-16 sale to Turkey depends on NATO approval
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress cannot support the $20 billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey until Ankara ratifies the NATO memberships of Sweden and Finland, a bipartisan group of senators said on Thursday.
Sweden and Finland applied last year to join the trans-Atlantic defense pact after Russia invaded Ukraine, but faced unexpected objections from Turkey and have since sought to win its support.
Ankara wants Helsinki and Stockholm in particular to take a tougher line against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered a terror group by Turkey and the European Union, and another group it blames for a 2016 coup attempt.
The three nations reached an agreement on a way forward in Madrid last June, but Ankara suspended talks last month following protests in Stockholm in which a far-right Danish politician burned a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.
In a letter to President Joe Biden, 29 Democratic and Republican senators said the two Nordic countries were making "full and good faith efforts" to meet the conditions for NATO membership that Turkey asked, even though Ankara says Sweden needs to do more.
"Once the NATO accession protocols are ratified by Türkiye, Congress can consider the sale of F-16 fighter jets. A failure to do so, however, would call into question this pending sale," the senators wrote.
It was the first time Congress explicitly and directly linked the F-16 sale to Turkey with the NATO accession bids of the two Nordic countries.
The Biden administration has repeatedly said it supports the sale and refused to link the two issues, although it acknowledged that the ratification of Sweden and Finland's NATO accession would facilitate the sale process in Congress.
Turkey has said it could approve Finland's NATO membership application ahead of Sweden's, but the Finnish president and foreign minister have both rejected this idea, arguing that the security of the two Nordic countries is mutually dependent.
Of NATO's 30 members, only Turkey and Hungary have yet to ratify the Nordic countries' memberships.
Turkey requested in October 2021 to buy 40 Lockheed Martin Corp F-16 fighters and nearly 80 modernization kits for its existing warplanes.
In a visit to Washington last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the NATO issue should not be a precondition for the sale and urged the Biden administration to persuade Congress to drop its objection.
While Congress can block foreign arms sales, it has not previously mustered the two-thirds majorities in both chambers required to overcome a presidential veto.
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Well goddamn! Congress actually did something right for a change! Now Biden needs to do the right thing and "link" the effing sale as well.“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”Comment
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Oh that’s good news indeed, if it’s implemented!Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
It would force the huckster of get of the pot. Or give up on the American F-16’s, and do what was threatened.
Buy Russian fighters, and thereby show his true allegiance!
If that doesn’t get them booted out of NATO don’t know what would?
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/3...fighter-russiaWhen we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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Looks like somebody has something Erdogan really wants. Hmmmm, I wonder how this will pan out. I'm betting he discovers that he can live with Sweden in NATO.
I'm not sure what it will take to pressure Putin-lite in Hungary, but I'm sure that can be done too.sigpic
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C CComment
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It’s my impression that Hungary’s Orban, financial dependence on NATO; and the EU, will ultimately outweigh his Putin sycophancy.Originally posted by Bigfella View Post
Think a spiraling double digit inflation rate!
Think the EU withholding a payout of around 15bn Euro’s, because of their failure to abide by the EU charter!
Money talks, so unless he can get Putin to spit in the kitty, he’ll buckle in the end!
https://www.ft.com/content/6074bbc2-...e-03c464cec8b4
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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https://nordicmonitor.com/2023/01/er...-jet-fighters/
With his economy in free-fall, even the Turkish huckster will surely balk at this.“Erdoğan’s security advisor says it’s time to stop purchasing American weapons and fighter jets”
It’s rock and hard place time!
Couldn’t happen to anyone more “deserving”!When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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Wait until the election is over! After all this is what Erdogans's entire position on Sweden and Finland has been about from day one - looking like Turkey's strong man, the sole protector of Turkey's national interests to the exclusion of all else. But given the external pressure he's facing? Expect both countries membership of NATO to be 'magically' approved by Turkey shortly after he's won. Which he will since otherwise the election will have been 'stolen'. Cue the usual chaos that ensues.Last edited by Monash; 07 Feb 23,, 21:46.If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.Comment
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