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.
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.