> George Bush this morning said he "strongly supported" Ukraine's attempt to join Nato, and warned he would not allow Russia to veto its membership bid.
> At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO decided it would not yet offer membership to Georgia and Ukraine; nevertheless, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that Georgia and Ukraine would eventually become members.[44]
>>>> 1. Ukraine has wanted to join NATO for some time, and at at least some NATO countries have expressed a wish for it to join.
>>> Which ones?
>> The US.
> So of course US would want Ukraine to join.
Then why ask "which ones"?
The point is Ukraine isn't totally outside of NATO unless you're being absurdly legalistic, and it's quite possible it would have come to a NATO country's defense.
NATO is an alliance led by the US. US drives most of the policy, but within NATO there’s still a lip service to get consensus within.
US wants Ukraine in NATO is a given, because it would make neo-containment so much easier.
The question that I ask is which other countries in the NATO is hot on the heels to let Ukraine in? It’s certainly not Western European countries who rightly recognized that such a move is a provocation to the Russian and likely to drag themselves in a conflict that they don’t want to be in, something that’s paid in money, bullets and blood.
The newly added members on the eastern edge of NATO in their self interest, might want that, but I don’t think they’re dumb enough to be that vocal about it for the same reasons as the Western Europeans.
> The point is Ukraine isn't totally outside of NATO unless you're being absurdly legalistic, and it's quite possible it would have come to a NATO country's defense.
No. This statement above is the absurd one. Ukraine is outside of NATO. Do you see US boots on the ground? France? UK? Germany? Poland? No. NATO members has article 5, which means members have to come to the defence of a member being attacked. Invocation of article 5 obligates the rest of the members to fight, there’s no choice there.
Why would Ukraine come to a NATO country’s defence? Ukraine isn’t obligated to do so, but it can choose to. Choosing to help a NATO country’s defence has no bearing on whether one is in the alliance.
The US.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/01/nato.georgia:
> George Bush this morning said he "strongly supported" Ukraine's attempt to join Nato, and warned he would not allow Russia to veto its membership bid.
And they had enough support at the time that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations...:
> At the NATO summit in Bucharest in April 2008, NATO decided it would not yet offer membership to Georgia and Ukraine; nevertheless, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said that Georgia and Ukraine would eventually become members.[44]