michael,
Georgia and Ukraine should concentrate getting into EU and not NATO.
I agree with that, but dilemma is that they may not be economically ready to satisfy EU conditions, but they may be ready from the point of view of democracy, respect for human rights, aspirations to join the Western world.
Should the democratic West withhold the protective umbrella of NATO alliance just because their economies may be basket cases?
I thought expanding nato was fine. It started getting a bit hairy with the Baltic states with large russian populations. East Ukraine is how much Russian and how much Ukranian? We cant have border swaps as done by nazis and soviets in WW2 but we might have to do some adjusting thru some sort of international organization or court. Where populations are now just as important as the historical geographical boundaries.
You have some personal insight on this that is valuable. Lets stop name-calling the russians soviets and view what they did in perspective while justly condemning them for invading GA.
The ethnic issues are somewhat troublesome, and there are no easy solutions if the tensions are inflamed, which is not outside the realms of possibilites. Being members of common alliance may in fact diffuse the hostilities. For example, it is not outside of realms of possibilities for that Greece and Turkey could have ended up in a serious conflict over Cyprus.
There is a significant number of Hungarians living in surrounding countries, but that is, IMO, less of a problems than Russians living outside the borders of Russia.
Like you said, this issue is not a hypothetical. It became a current issue, when Baltic States were accepted to NATO, so admitting Ukraine and Georgia does not break new ground, but it may compound an issue that is already at hand.
Joe |
