Womble, I think the word puppet is not aapropriate here. Staying out of NATO will not make your country less *puppet* than mine.
US has it's own -World domination plan- and it will be moving towards it regardless of UN, EU, OSCE etc.

And Womble, who is nowadays not affected by US? France criticised US involvment in Iraq and lost quite a good percentage of it's export. It was slapped by US. Is France a puppet? But, it greatly depends from the States.

And it is military alliance. For estonians being a member of NATO gives some protection from Russia. But, it can be illusion, as in a conflict of interest large countries look for the solution for the sake of smaller one's. As it is in Kosovo.
So, if there will be conflict between US and Russia it possible that it will be solved by trading Baltic States, as it was done in 1939 between USSR and Germany.

I have read some scintific articles written by Russian academic economists. They think that there is much probability that NATO will collapse in about eight years. It will happend after Ukrain and Grusia join it. Even now there are too many interests in NATO as there are too many different countries.

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I wish for a real peaceful international organisation...


Kiya <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I wish to see time where there is no need for it.

"Endure. In enduring, grow strong." -Githzerai adage.