Much of the international news this week centered around the NATO summit meetings in Vilnius, Lithuania which was attended by President Biden. The main news was about Sweden being accepted to join the organization and Ukraine not despite desperate please by Ukriane President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Sweden has long been a neutral, non-aligned nation; so non-aligned that it was not a combatant in World War II. But today with the Russian aggression in Ukraine now feels that it is in their best interest to join the Western European (plus the US and Canada) alliance as a deterent to possible Russian aggression.

The entry of Sweden has been blocked by those great European democracies Turkey and Hungary... the two countries that are less similar to European democratic nations than any others in the alliance. Between these two countries they can offer only one item that is of military value to other NATO nations --- Incirlic Air Base in Turkey. Sweden's government, poliics, industries and people are much more closely aligned with the rest of the NATO countries.

Essentially Turkey has blocked Sweden's entry into NATO because the Swedish government has not cracked down on nor arrested anti-Islamic protesters. Turkey claims these protesters are terrorists.

Finally, by making deals and of course paying bribes and tribute to the Turkish leader Edrogan, Turkey and its puppet ally Hungary have relented and Sweden will be allowed to join the alliance.

This is great news for NATO because Sweden, in addition to being a liberal European democracy has a strong military and produces some very high quality military equipment including artillery, rockets, aircraft and ships.

On the other hand Ukraine has not been accepted into the alliance. Again good news. Ukraine is currently fighting a war with Russia. Ukraines last opportunity to join was three years ago. It did not... It did not do what was necessary to gain admittance...build up a strong military. The first requirment for joining NATO is make the committment to having a capable military that can co-mingle with other NATO forces and equipment.

The current war with Russia poses the major problem for Ukraine. The intent of NATO is to prevent wars by having a dominating presence in the face of potential aggressors. Russia won't attack Lithuania because it is a NATO member. Lithuania has the military presence to deter agressor nations such as Russia. It is not the intent of NATO to fight Russia... but it will if necessary.

NATO will not and should not join the fight in Ukraine. It can provide support for Ukraine forces but Ukraine troops need to do the fighting. If Ukraine were to join NATO now, this would immediately create a war between Russia and NATO nations. If President Biden and Congress want a war with Russia... they should create a war declaration. The US should not be dragged into this conflict because Ukraine was ill prepared.