Basically the rules are, you can't be in a fight already if you want to join.
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2025
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Which makes a lot of sense. If you could wait until you need backup to join, you'd just never join until you need it. No country wants to get sucked into someone else's war.
At least, that's the mentality. The truth is, no war is "someone else's war". We're all in this together globally, and oppression anywhere is a threat to everywhere.
Who knows, maybe NATO'll update to the modern era after this. Maybe.
Probably not, at least not while conservatives hold power in allied countries.
...not while oligarchs hold power everywhere...
FTFY
There is no such rule. The rule is everyone else already in has to agree to you joining. Practically most people don't want to go to war and so nobody will agree, but there is no rule stating they can't agree.
An unwritten rule, then.
Not anymore, you wrote it down
pulls off monster mask it was me, NATO all along!
IIRC, there's also a sort of anti-parasite scan, naturally. If you've ever experienced bedbugs, you'll know the value in that. Deeply.
wonder if it works for someone with brainworms in his administeation.
Nato is a defensive organization. If any member is attacked, every other member has to come to their aid. You can't join if you're currently being attacked. That's a pretty fundamental assumption. Nato exists to prevent future wars by acting as a bloc, not to force their members to join existing wars.
To join nato, ukraine needs to win the war and recover all their territory, release their claims on any russian occupied territories, or get enough of nato's membership on their side to be agree to be forced into the war. None of these are possible anytime soon.
If any member is attacked, every other member has to come to their aid.
They don't have to. It stipulates that a war on one member is viewed as a declaration of war on all members. But there's no protocol that forces members to act.
For example when the Cypriot war broke out between Greece and Turkey, both NATO members.
Then it would make such membership meaningless and will only undermine collective action within NATO?
Yeah, in practice this is interpreted as as everyone must join to retaliate, except maybe in niche cases like the aggressor also being in NATO.
It is what it is
NATO is a group where everyone agreed if one of them gets punched, they all punch the bully back. Because of this, the bully doesn't punch anyone in the group. The bully could make the punches painful for NATO, but NATO could do the same to the bully.
Ukraine is being punched. If they join NATO, all the NATO states have to punch back, and then the bully punches NATO because they're already being punched.
The threat of being punched keeps NATO and the bully away from each other. If one side actually starts punching, the other side would too, and both would be punched. So NATO isn't willing to let Ukraine in and immediately start a fight
While there is logic to this, it is inherently flawed, and everyone with eyes can see that. (idiom, no shade)
If Ukraine falls, we all lose.
When Palestine is razed & repaved into a footnote, we all lose.
When China, N. Korea, Russia, et al, act in tandem (more than they already are?), we all lose.
When NATO does fuck-all, and offers thoughts & prayers instead from behind a paper-thin technicality even they know it's horseshit cowardice...
When megacorps undermine political structures for their own gain, redefining their very basis on a global scale and with impunity...
When we the people as a fucking species, in the face of wanton cruelty and blatant greed, do nothing...
Well. We've already lost, eh?
Find a nice spot, shake out that folding chair, grab an ice cold beverage, and settle in for whatever the finale's gonna be. Could be impressive, could be a whimper, but it's gonna be something.
Article 10 of Nato
The Parties may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty. Any State so invited may become a Party to the Treaty by depositing its instrument of accession with the Government of the United States of America. The Government of the United States of America will inform each of the Parties of the deposit of each such instrument of accession
In the end people don't want to sent their sons to the meatgrinder if not absolutely necessary. There are the obvious exceptions of the rule.
They did when they sent them to iraq and Afghanistan
French wen into Mali twice.
They are fine sending their sons die there...
and the beggining of those 2 wars were so mismanaged too.
They was illegal wars
Shit never goes to the plna and the kids with guns pay the price of mistakes first.
I am surprised they are still able to recruit. I guess poverty sucks.
Russia has a bomb strapped on itself, saying "If any one tries to beat ME up, I'll blow us all up!"
Today it would be about the best for me - I'm old enough that I wouldn't be drafted, my kids young enough that this would likely be over before they are old enough. However I have nieces, nephews, and cousins of military age, some currently serving - all of them are in danger of getting killed if we were to let Ukraine join and thus I cannot be for it. I have a lot of sympathy for Ukraine, but not so much that I want my close friends and family to die for them.
The above or some variation represents most of the people (not countries) who are in NATO.