Military disasters and corporate failures pave the way for groupthink.
However, all is not lost. “Always look on the bright side of life,” they say Monty Python who would be in a good position to replace their “Finland” song with a “NATO” song covering Finland’s current membership intrigues.
In April 2022, the fanfare arising from the government’s report on the reassessment of Finland’s security situation did not acknowledge the possible opposition of Turkey and Hungary. The same experts continue to advise.
Another citizens’ initiative of the parliament called for NATO membership to ensure the preservation of human rights. Still, Finland has already handed over one man back to Turkey. Bright Side: He was supposedly a criminal.
Finland has already given the green light to issue military export permits for products sent to Turkey, although since 2019 it has refused to do so due to Turkey’s attack on Syria. Still, already in 2019, the Turkish military pension foundation OYAK became a major shareholder in the Finnish steel manufacturer Miilux, which produces steel for military armored vehicles. Bright side: Maybe the Finnish government will save Finnish jobs.
Finland, unlike the other Nordic countries, has announced that the right to protest has limitations. Bright side: Burning books is stupid anyway.
Stoltenberg told how easy it will be for Finland to join NATO. The Estonian Prime Minister said it would be easy. Finnish politicians said it would be easy. Foreign politicians said that Finns should join the group. Experts said it would be easy. Political groups were established to coordinate Finland/Sweden’s NATO membership. The Finnish and Swedish ministers were in front of the media and acknowledged their joint commitment to membership. They coordinate their declarations to join the celebration of a new dawn. Perhaps this was the end of the Finnishization, or perhaps the beginning of a new hyper-western form of the concept. On the bright side: we’re bowing to the US for a change.
Still, if opinion polls are to be believed, polls show that Finns support leadership in this endeavor, despite the challenges facing Finland’s national security. Clearly, ordinary Finns always look on the bright side, they are the happiest people in the world!
Still, Finland has effectively alienated itself from its eastern neighbor. It is abandoning its western neighbor. How this strengthens Finland’s geopolitical position is fascinating. All in the belief that NATO is the cavalry on the horizon that will come to help Finland. Yes, always look on the bright side. Nordstream’s events may give you an idea of what to expect.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Seymour Hersh he was silenced by the Western media when he reported that the US had blown up the Nordstream pipeline in secret cooperation with certain other NATO countries. In any other situation, this would be seen as a declaration of war by one ally against another – but it doesn’t fit the story. So much for the cavalry coming to the rescue. The reporting that the US blew up the pipeline is the biggest non-news story in months. It is mythical to think that the Russians would blow up their own pipeline when they can simply turn it off. The consequences of this are just beginning.
But always look on the bright side: the Turks will probably agree to Finland’s membership, but at what cost to Finland? Finnish decision-makers and experts were not quite transparent or willing to discuss the dark side of NATO membership, and the lack of supervision has been evident from its absence.
Professor Kimmo Rentola talked about the Machiavellian wisdom that Finland followed when dealing with the Soviet Union. This kind of Machiavellianism is now used in another neighbor… I wonder what adjectives the Swedes use when Finland joins NATO and is left in the cold, but I would advise them to always look on the bright side of life. After all, they can be saved from being subject to the United States.
HT
Graham Wood
Graham Wood has been a lecturer at the University of Helsinki for over thirty years. He graduated with an Executive MBA from Aalto and a PhD from the University of Helsinki’s Faculty of Social Sciences, where he studied conflicts and collective violence. He is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in Great Britain.
This is an “Outlook” opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views or position of The Helsinki Times. This column has not been verified and HT is not responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statements in this article.
Source: The Nordic Page
