One thing that does confuse me about this last-minute Turkish objection is: Why did not the USA and other key NATO countries do private discussions with all NATO members to get their support ahead of time before giving Sweden and Finland the green light to start their application process domestically?
Now Sweden and Finland are committed domestically to NATO it is a lot easier for Turkey to get their pound of flesh than if there were private discussions ahead of time to get Turkey to back this. This entire affair seems like a very bad diplomatic strategy on the part of the USA.
Except Turkey is in a worse position now, Finland and Sweden have gotten security guarantees from USA, UK and several other countries. It means that Finland and Sweden can just outwait Erdogan, and Erdogan will find that his negotiation position is worse right now.
jaichind, who uses "libertarian" as its own antonym, tends to assume that brutal strongmen are megabrained 69-degree-chess grandmasters and liberal-democratic leaders are feckless oafs until proven otherwise.
I still can't get over his take that the BJP should ally with indian muslim cultural elites, as if it's possible to find a group of people who loath each other more than those two.
