Rumania pushes closer ties with the American Empire

[DavidByron]

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/23/international/europe/23ROMA.html?ex=1036390115&ei=1&en=ca515db0b8679cd4

[Stefan]

Ok, no need to tell me that this was directed at me...
  The article is pretty accurate...but what matters is the interpretation that I think you give to it.
    We want to join NATO,which is a reasonable goal,considering how Russia treated us in the past. We need protection in the future.How many countries are in NATO already ? 15 ? Do they all have "close ties with the American Empire " ? Of course they have,otherwise NATO couldn't exist.

  The worst part in this,and what could make me look like a hypocrite (again ) is that our government is willing to send troops in Irak if there will be a war ,so that USA will support Romania in the attempt to join NATO.Once in NATO , things will change ....americans don't need our insignificant troops to to march in Bagdad.
 And that Silviu Brucan mentioned there is an old senile communist who doesn't know his own name if you ask him.

[DavidByron]

Sure they need you.  They need to try and convince the American public that it isn't all just the US against Iraq and the rest of the world.

Anyway I was more interested in the way Romania seemed to be risking EU membership by sucking up to the US.  Surely Romania's interests lie with Europe not the US?  Recently NATO changed its rules to say that most of the countries population had to support joining NATO before the country would be admitted --- this is basically because of Slovenia where the government wants to join but the polls say most of the people don't.  Any idea how that would go in Romania?

[Stefan]

Well.I've been searching on the web and I've found a study.

"do you want Romania to be part of NATO ?"

75 % answered yes

"in your opinion,what will be the effects of Romania joining NATO?"

The rise of the trust of foreign investors in Romania 51,0%
The rise of military spendings  45,3%
The modernization of our war industry 43,7%
The rise of our credibility in international negociations 41,9%
The achievment of a guarantee of our national security  40,5%
Political dependency of Romania to occidental powers  27,5%
The rise of access to the values and cultural resources of occidental countries 19,2%
The subordination of our army to foreign military leaders 16,9%
The breaking of the relations with our traditional economical partners 10,7%
Loosing national independence 6,4%
I don't know /no answer13,8%

 I think that answers your questions.As it's clear from the high percentage for the first questions,people here see almost any thing like this as a hope of getting rid of poverty.The political and military implications go on the second priority rank.