Warsaw, Poland Montenegro will join NATO shortly, as soon as the 28 member nations ratify the decision, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said last week. He emphasized that “the door is open” to new membership, and no nation outside the alliance has any veto power over its expansion. Georgia, too, is checking off the requirements to join, and a senior NATO official, in a press backgrounder, said that even though prospective NATO members are supposed to have their national house in order, with no pending conflicts, Georgia’s problems with Russia don’t negate its candidacy. The conflict over Ossetia could be construed as a tactic by Russia to invalidate Georgia’s NATO application, and it won’t work, the official said.
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
