No benefits without a service in return (Quid pro quo)

[matrixmann]

Hopefully those countries which now file their applications for becoming a member of the NATO don't forget that membership doesn't only mean getting "safe from a Russian invasion", but also, whenever the United States are up in a war again with anyone, they're firmly part of the cleanup squad then after that skirmish.

Comments

[matrixmann]

I'll strongly guess they haven't thought that through to the end.
Until now, Finland and Sweden had a status of being quasi-members, they were associates, but not as firmly bound like full members.
So in case even NATO countries had disputes among them, or a NATO country pursued own political and military goals (like Turkey did), they could previously just back out and act like they don't have any obligation to do something in particular in this case.
This changes with becoming full members - and here you encoutner the misery because NATO is already long past its stage of unity... (Which works fairly better if just a bunch of countries are members of such an organization or alliance.)

Just saying: I'll watch the show attentively what kind of "conditions" Turkey lays down now in order to agree with the accession.

PS: It never proved to be a good move to join an association, club or society shortly before it starts to dissolve... (And here it is this case: Should the US back out because they might say NATO becomes too expensive to them, NATO is history. Because all the other countries always hid behind the US contributing the lion's share of what makes out this alliance.)