How's that win-win relationship working out for Ukraine right now?
"The Ukrainian military already is bleeding Russia in the Donbass
region (and vice versa). Providing more U.S. military equipment and
advice could lead Russia to increase its direct involvement in the conflict and the price it pays for it ... Increasing
military advice and arms supplies to Ukraine is the most feasible of these
options with the largest impact, but any such initiative would have to be
calibrated very carefully to avoid a widely expanded conflict."
- 2019 paper from the RAND Corporation titled Extending Russia: Competing from Advantageous Ground
Moldova for sure. Baltics or Poland highly likely, and that would mean a direct confrontation with NATO. The nuclear threats now are peanuts compared to what would happen then.
I've assumed reality where there's no "NATO expansionism" (as GP was complaining about US forging alliances), so Poland and entire post-Soviet block wouldn't be in the NATO at all and would be full-time enjoying "Ruski Mir".
Hard to find words to express how shitty that would be.
I think it varies case by case. Sorry, I don’t believe in a equal and just relationship between the biggest economy in the world and economies that are few order of magnitude smaller. As well as I don’t believe in a relationship between 40 years old man and 17 years old girl.
But let’s imagine that this is a win-win relationship, say between Estonia and NATO. I understand that Estonia is getting from them, but what USA is getting?
What did USA gain from joining the allies in Europe during WW1 and WW2? Besides the moral and humanitarian reasons, which I actually believe played a big role even though I'm not American and I know it's easy to be cynical online and disregard those, they also gained a larger market for their products. US hegemony has benefitted the US for decades. Same thing applies now, the more countries that are friendly and politically aligned the better. And NATO isn't just the US, the Baltic airspace is currently being protected by Portugal and Romania.
You claim that the economy of EU+UK is "a few order of magnitude smaller" than US?
USA is getting a strong partnership next to one of its worst enemies.
Let me pose this question: If US would drop out of NATO, would that mean all NATO countries would drop out, or would the rest of NATO still form an alliance?
Maybe one form is better than the other, or do you consider those equal?
I'm not from US by the way, I'm Belgian. You know, home of EU and NATO. Both were formed on collaboration agreements, not enforcement.