Weclome back Second Pacific Squadon. Think Japan will accept an invite by the US to run some exercises around Puerto Rico?

I was gonna make fun of the French but then I remembered their nuclear doctrine is to lob a 250kt yield warhead as a warning shot.

Surely it will be safe to stop by the Amazon and pick up a few local critters to boost morale. Say what does venomous mean?

As a US Veteran: Fuck. That.

These are not US Service Members, they did not take an Oath to the US and they do not serve the US interests. Even disregarding the atrocities currently happening by the IDF (who are clearly not understanding what the D in their title is for) none of these members deserve any recognition or compensation from the US govt.

NATO is strictly a defensive alliance so any power that did start WW3 would be pretty damn stupid to be aggressive against NATO. And better for everyone this way, rather than give Russia a chance to chew up Eastern Europe country by country like they tried against Ukraine, Georgia and Chechnia.

Unless you happen to be Russian or some other power seeking to use military aggression, or the threat there of, against Europe or North America, NATO expansion is a good thing for all parties. The larger the alliance, the more viewpoints, training and speciality each nation can provide and there is less gap for something to get through. Ukraine is a perfect example of why this should have happened a long time ago but political will wasn’t there.

Sweden has a lot to offer NATO and vice versa, its certainly self sufficient for its military needs but with the defense guarantee it can now afford to diversity its military a bit more than its used to with not everyone and everything needing to adhere to a total defense doctrine. There won’t be any Swedish Expeditionary Forces but Sweden does have some rather unique experience and training it can exchange with its western neighbors and possible get some technology exchange and other material assistance to help shore up the northern borders of NATO. The Baltic Sea becoming a NATO lake just a bonus now if Russia tries to start or continue its usual shit.

Japan’s standard of living and medical care available gives them a life expectancy of 84 years. Akira was also successful and rather wealthy by the standards of his country and thus had a access to an even better standard of living than most.

So yes, in the context, 68 is a rather young age to die given the resource available to them.