Sweden's Government Decides to Apply for NATO Membership

NATO expansionism by admitting Finland and Sweden makes NATO stronger and puts more pressure on the putin to end his inhumane war crimes and pulverizing of critical Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

The sanctions and departure of most of the world’s investment and operations in Russia and world reaction to the putin’s war crimes is having an impact on Russia’s inner circle. 

As time passes more and more of the Russian people will realize the depth of the putin’s war crimes committed in their name including the mass killings of Russian speaking civilians and pulverization of Russian speaking towns using anti-personnel clutter bombs, horrific hyperbaric bombs and even hypersonic missiles - and the intentional bombing of maternity hospitals and schools.

None of this bodes well for the putin or his inner circle.

I would expect the Russian political elite will want to protect their futures, particularly if Ukraine continues to embarrass the Russian Army - and the putin will either just disappear or be turned over to Ukraine in chains for war crimes prosecution.

The Ukrainian unprecedentedly early investigation and careful documentation of Russian war crimes will certainly lead to Russian concessions of occupied Ukrainian lands, including Crimea, and Russian reparations for civilian deaths and destruction of critical civilian architecture - if Ukrainian forces can continue to decimate Russian invading forces and more and of them either just quit fighting or surrender.

United we stand, divided we fall!

I'm not sure what is going on in this world but we sure are hell bent on WAR!!!  This really scares me.  We are currently dishing out so much money for a war that isn't ours and there's no end in sight. I can see why Trump wanted to leave NATO.  

I lived in Sweden for a few years. This is a big mistake. Sweden has been neutral for 200 years. Europeans would protect Sweden anyway. Sweden was once a beautiful, almost crime-free country until the socialist Democratic Party unleashed mass immigration 10 years ago. Sweden took in over a million refugees from Arab countries and Somalia. They have the highest rapes in Europe, gang violence is out of control, long, long waits to see a specialist or doctor and No Go Zones. Does this sound familiar? Liberalism destroys countries. 

There has been a lot of sidebar discussions in this topic on the role of the Republican Cartel in the great scheme of things. I feel that their is more to the story:

I still to this day hold on to several traditionally Conservative principals. The current Conservative party however no longer has any principles at all and no longer even pretends to support traditional Conservative values.

Much of the noise they generate over cancel culture, wokeness, protecting the children from critical race theory, banning math books as being too supportive of critical race theory, re-charging the clamor over 'replacement' theory, their moves to ban a 50 year old precedent of upholding a women's right to choose and especially the endorsement of wacky nut jobs who claim that the all powerful deep-state stole the presidential election from the trump - all of these things and probably a lot more, are all part of a well-coordinated tactic to foment divisiveness and capture the news cycle and divert attention from their efforts to quietly co-opt every aspect of the voting process.

If you are paying attention you will see that few principled Republicans who resisted extreme presidential pressures for them to take actions to throw-out non-trump ballots, to somehow ' find' more trump ballots or not perform their ministerial duties to certify thier State's electoral counts have all been quietly replaced or their duties have been reassigned to highly partisan political hacks.

An incredibly small number number of prinipled people prevented what otherwise would have been a damaging Constitutional crisis - and ALL OF THEM have either been removed or their former responsibilities re-assigned to highly partisan election denier hacks.

The manufactured nonsense that the last presidential election which was the most highly monitored  national election in our country and yet claimed to be fraudulent and the never ending post election recounts that draws so much media attention are all to cover up what’s really being done quietly in the shadows because it could not get the media attention needed to expose it.

The Giuliani led circus and bogus claims of ‘proven’ voter fraud  was thrown out of each and every court since no evidence and no action that would even lead to legal justification to further investigate was actually ever found, none, not ever.

This was a distraction and a predicate for State Republican legislators to address the ‘burning urge of the electorate’ to fix election security, a fictitious concern based on no evidence beyond instances of individual fraud (all Republican voters like McCarthy who was registered to votes and did vote concurrently in a least two  States) - and no where near the level of voting fraud that could have impacted any of the results. The manufactured concept of voter fraud and bogus election results driven by Russian disinformation were predicted by the trump’s US intelligence services many months earlier to be the Russian’s principal election interference tactic - to sow divisiveness and lack of trust in election processes as a means to keep the trump in power.

For this who may believe that any of the last election was fraudulent or that the election was stolen, the putin thanks you. 

All of this opened  the door to for Republican State legislatures to suppress access of voting demographics not likely to support them, to install known to be highly partisan officials at every level from voter registration, the ability to reject certain ballots based on detailed technicalities with no oversight to assure that these rules are applied uniformly, giving the legislature the right to take over a counties ballot certification and counting process and even declaring a county’s election counts to be invalid and needing to be replaced by the legislature’s determination without any clear definition of any limitations or restrictions on their ability to do so.

Also, long-standing demonstrated apolitical election supervisors have been subject to what appears be a highly coordinated harassment campaign and are abandining their long standing posts out of fear for thier family's lives - and being replaced by highly partisan officials. Even school boards are being targeted, threatened and eventually being replaced by RNC approved partisans.

if the tump or the next trump-in-waiting were to use the same exact tactics in 2024 there is nothing left anymore to prevent them from being successful.

A highly respected very conservative judge vetted and considered for the Supreme Court by two prior Republican administrations publicly expressed the views paraphrased above. He openly warned that the Republican Cartel’s antics were a distraction as they were collectively working to correct roadblocks identified in the 2020 election’s ‘trial run’ to secure even more ways to ‘win’ unearned and undeserved re-election. 

A large majority in Sweden’s parliament supported joining NATO, acknowledging the changing realities in Europe given Russia’s willingness to use force against a neighboring state. Swedish paperwork is expected to be simultaneously filed along with Finland's in Brussels in the next few days, which will be welcomed by NATO where experts say Finland and Sweden punch above their weight in military might, and will strengthen Baltic & Arctic defenses. 

Both Sweden and Finland participate in joint NATO exercises, and sent troops to NATO-led missions in Afghanistan, Balkans, Iraq, etc. Finland spends 2.3% of GDP on defense which is the largest in Europe and has been invested in artillery force, 64 F-35 stealth fighters, and more tanks than Germany.

Both Sweden & Finland plan on providing their own security and not hosting NATO forces or infrastructure within their territory.

In the interim Stockholm has received security assurances from partners (US, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Norway & Iceland)

Russia has reverse course from threatening to attack, to stating Russian response will depend on the existence of NATO infrastructure in Sweden & Finland.

The irony is that security negotiations with Russian prior to Russia invading Ukraine were on where NATO infrastructure would be placed, but instead of negotiating Russia walked out & attacked, and after all the destruction of war they have arrived at what was offered at the negotiating table.

Finland’s Russia experts do not expect Russia to back down from its maximalist goals in Ukraine and expect a long, drawn out conflict in the heart of Europe.

Turkey’s objections about both Finland & Sweden joining NATO are viewed as seeking concessions:

1) History of hosting members of Kurdish militant groups
2) Sweden’s suspension of arms sales to Turkey since 2019 over Ankara’s military operation in Syria.
3) extradition requests for 33 people Turkey says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) which Turkey considers terrorists 

Finnish & Swedish diplomatic delegations are headed to Turkey to negotiate, and Greece another NATO country that Turkey has complained about was in Washington DC for talks so a deal is definitely in the works. 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/16/russia-finland-sweden-nato-ukraine-war

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/05/16/finaland-nato-russia-ukraine-sweden/

I need to know more about the outcome once the joining happen, no reading between the lines!!

Every peace loveing country in the world should be allowed to join.

Taxation without representation.

If all democratic countries join NATO there won't be another Ukraine.

. ATO has been a greater force for peace than the United Nations, and that is saying a LOT.  I support any member who joins in good faith and keeps to the letter of the agreement.

I fully support Swedens request to join NATO. They would be a very beneficial partner, and we need to make a strong move to oppose Russian expansion. 

Make sure this happens

I fully support Sweden joing Nato. Russia has shown much more agression, with it's Invasion & Attacking Ukraine. China is also flexing it's muscles, & the threat of Invading & taking over Taiwan is well known. Sweden will strenghten NATO & will add to it's Country's Protection from Invasions by any Foriegn Nation, by joing Nato. We need to keep Democratic Countries safe from any Country led by a Dictator, who threatens to end their Democratic Governments at all costs. In Unity there is Strength.

always room for more at this table.

It is critical during this time of Russian agression for countries  to unite to defend againist further actions by Russia.

Why not??  As long as there is no politics involved.  

Absolutely. And welcome! 

All countries near Russia need to belong to NATO as we see Russia does not respect sovereign borders.

"The more the merrier."  My great-grandfather immigrated with his parents and siblings when he was 5 years old from Sweden.  He lied about his age to fight for the "North" during the civil war.  The 14th child he sired was my maternal grandfather, who inturn lied about his age to enlist in WW1.  With such a swedish bloodline in my family, I am proud they want to join NATO.  Norway, Finland, Denmark, as well as Sweden have the fighting "Viking" spirit within them.  They should be welcomed with open arms.

This move will further strengthen the NATO alliance and provide further surrounding of Russia.  Putrid will not like this but he is proving to be a paper tiger.  I do not think he will stop with Ukraine.  The stronger NATO is the greater the deterrent to further Russia aggression!

Russia is out of control and needs to be checked.  Sweden's choice, after maintaining a strict policy of neutrality for as long as I remember, sends a strong and unambiguous signal to Putin to check himself, that he has gone too far.  We should all pay attention to this move as the message to the West is equally unambiguous and quite serious.

Sweden ends 200 years of neutrality; Finland ends 80 years of neutrality; Swiss seek enhanced cooperation with NATO.

Putin moves mountains.

Absolutely! Finland as well. Putin backed himself into this corner. Also, China is watching. Both need to realize the civilized nations are fed up with their bully tactics. This is one thing Biden can't screw up.

Looking at a map of NATO, there's a big empty space where Sweden and Finland are. I understand their commitment to neutrality, but sometimes outside forces require action. I think this is one of those times. Putin cannot be allowed to be the next Hitler. (And neither can Trump or any of his acolytes, either, while we're on the subject.)

Yes, Yes and Yes.  Putin caused it and with their closeness to Russia this make them, and us, more secure.