NATO posturing and bullshit in Vilnius

Here, by Chuck Spinney, a DoD retiree and acquaintance of Andrew Cockburn, posting at his Substack, is the full truth about the bullshit at the NATO summit at Vilnius as well as all the bullshit behind it. It hits hard from the start, with calling Ukraine the most corrupt country in Europe this side of Kosovo. Take THAT, Blue Anon, NAFO Nazis and Uki-Tankies. (The piece is also at Counterpunch.)

Meanwhile, how much is Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spinning NATO along? At Vilnius, he promised to back Sweden's accession to NATO — in exchange for F-16s (that can't fight well against Russians), Swedish and IMF economic aid (and bribery) and a promise that Sweden would shut its mouth about Kurds. Well, Erdogan now has said it won't be considered until the Turkish parliament returns from a summer recess that starts shortly, in October. It's clear he's holding US feet to the fire on the planes even as many members of Congress might balk. And, why can't Warmonger Joe just ignore Congress and cite the global emergency, like he did in saying Ukraine would get cluster bombs? Answer? "Poor widdle (corrupt) Ukraine" has a constituency in the US, even if it's that corrupt; Turkey does not.

Posturing? Melvin Goodman calls out heightened nuclear weapons posturing at the Vilnius summit. He would also seem to offer a note of caution that the US/NATO has Zelensky on a six-month time frame to wrap things up. Tis true that Warmonger Joe would like to soft-pedal this in the run-up to the general election. But, given that majorities of both Rethuglicans and Democraps in the House voted against measures to cut Ukraine weapons funding over cluster bombs, the idea that Zelensky faces a hard deadline likely isn't true.