• Finland was admitted to NATO yesterday.
• Russia said it would take “countermeasures.”
• Sweden will likely be admitted this July, depending on the Turkish elections.

Happy Hump Day from another sunny day in Northern Italy.

Pam, Micah, and I will head to Tuscany for the long weekend. If you join us on the Rickards Uncensored broadcast on Thursday - moved from Friday - we’ll get a bottle of Chianti in.

I haven’t been to Florence in nearly twenty years, so I look forward to revisiting my favorite sites. But we’ll also be taking in Siena and San Gimignano, two places I haven’t visited before.

I’ll give you a full report on the Tuscan excursion next week.

Let’s turn our attention to more end-of-the-world matters.

Finland has officially joined NATO.

Entangling Alliances

I’m sure I’m supposed to be excited about this, but some guy named Washington warned us against “entangling alliances.”

In Washington’s Farewell Address, he said:

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible.

Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns.

Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities... it is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world; so far, I mean, as we are now at liberty to do it; for let me not be understood as capable of patronizing infidelity to existing engagements.

Of course, he was talking about the newly formed United States vis-à-vis Europe. But I always thought this was wise universal advice.

Washington knew the US would eventually be dragged into alliances, but had hoped for a twenty-year interval of peace.

If the world had listened to him, idiotic conflicts like World War I would never have happened.

How the West Got Lost

From History.com on how World War I started:

After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand came the July crisis. During this month, Austria-Hungary issued a list of demands to Serbia. Serbia, knowing that it could expect support from Russia as a fellow-Slavic state, refused to give in to one of the key demands. Austria-Hungary confirmed with Germany that it would receive its support if it went to war, and Russia did the same with France.

But on July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Over the next week and a half, Germany declared war on Russia and France, Britain declared war on Germany, and Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia.

The justification that Britain gave for entering the war didn’t even have to do with its Triple Entente with France and Russia—it had to do with [the] much older Treaty of London (also called the First Treaty of London) from 1839 that mandated Belgium should always be a neutral state. When Britain entered the war, it argued that Germany had violated this treaty by invading Belgium.

Over the next four years, many other nations entered the war. Japan joined the Allies at the end of August 1914. In November, the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers. The next year, Italy joined the war to fight against Germany and Austria-Hungary, with whom it had previously formed an alliance. In 1917, the United States joined the Allies.

It doesn’t get much dumber than that.

How many excellent young men were sacrificed on the altar of hesitant leadership?

Why did no one repudiate these alliances?

No One Questions NATO

NATO was founded on April 4, 1949. As its first Secretary General said, its mission was "to keep the Soviets out, the Americans in, and the Germans down."

It made total sense, then.

I’m not sure how much sense it makes now.

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was an escalation of tensions, not a cooling of them.

@Henrick_Palmgren tweeted, “So it's done, the ceremony of the accession of Finland into NATO has taken place. Below is much of the extent of the ritual around it. Note that Finland has to deposit their documents of accession to the U.S. Government via Secretary of State Antony Blinken. This tells you everything you need to know about what NATO is and who controls it.”

Jeffrey Sachs was making fun of the USG, thanks to the security arrangement China made with the Solomon Islands, and comparing that with the Finland situation:

Credit and watch the clip here: @zei_squirrel

Finland, a strategic partner of NATO for decades, finally codified its relationship with the alliance. (Those mustard-colored aspiring members are Sweden (top), Ukraine (center), Georgia (right), and Bosnia (left).

Credit: The Times of London

If you still can’t see why Russia would be opposed to Finland’s accession, here’s another way of looking at it via @realstewpeters:

Credit: @realstewpeters

The Finnish have a long history of being brave fighters. Here’s an accounting of what they’re bringing to the table:

Credit: The Times of London

Sanna Marin is Out, But Not Over This

You may have heard Sanna Marin, the now-outgoing Finnish Prime Minister, lost the election.

But it’s not that simple.

Her party actually gained seats in the Finnish parliament. It’s just that some parties gained a bunch more.

All the main parties that would or could participate in a coalition government are now pretty rabidly pro-NATO.

This is a marked change from twenty years ago when only 9% of Finns surveyed thought Finland should join NATO. That number is now 59%.

When I debated a Finn on Twitter yesterday, he was adamant he felt safer in NATO than outside of it. I asked him if he thought US troops would come to the rescue (something I absolutely don’t believe). He wrote back:

It’s because Russia only speaks power and knows it doesn’t stand a chance against NATO in a conventional war. They take risks and miscalculate, but they aren’t stupid.

Yeah, we can say ”US troops” but there’s much more.

Wrap Up

Well, there you have it.

Finland is in, the Russians are down, and the Americans are happy.

Somehow, I feel no safer today than I did two days ago.

Have a great day ahead.