"the neighboring countries are arming and strengthening their armies"

[Curious]

My hat! According to Lithuanian President, Dalia Grybauskaite, "the neighboring countries are arming and strengthening their armies". And that is why she considers that "presence of NATO is now especially important for Lithuania" (bnn-news.com/grybauskaite-lithuanias-neighbours-arming-44672).
To my thinking, in such a way Lithuania simply hopes to invite attention of our Alliance to the necessity of new investments in the field of its defense. And following in steps of Estonia, it fabricates various imaginary threats for attracting more attention of its NATO partners. In reality the plan of Lithuanian authorities is rather simple: to get more money for so-called further development of military technologies in order to spend these funds without stint!
Good plan, isn't it? But would NATO leaders be ready to compensate such pipe dreams of our Baltic allies in difficult conditions of financial crisis, I wonder?

[W.E.B. Du Bois]

I really don't know well enough to offer much insight into the situation, but I think there are many other reasons for the President to make this move other than getting free military stuff.

* A good opportunity to get in NATO and thus attain security (Lithuania was invaded and conquered, as recently as 1940 by the USSR and then invaded and conquered again by Germany, and then invaded and conquered again by the USSR). Can you blame a small country that has been conquered three times in the last 70 years for wanting to join an alliance?

* Making this play may be a good move for domestic politics in Lithuania for the President. In the US we often play stupid games with our foreign policy in order to score points at home.

With regards to your question, I think it dangerous to offer NATO membership to a small country like Lithuania. They're simply not worth the risk of going to war with Russia and its thousands of nuclear weapons. If Russia ever sacked Lithuania again, the way to go is economic sanctions.


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