5 April—The Monitor doesn’t normally indulge in sports talk, but when Geno did a Hurley the other night after his UConn girls unexpectedly came up short against South Carolina, at least he was mensch enough to apologize for what he termed his “uncalled for” behavior and praised the winning team. We should hope so.

Moving on to less momentous stuff, then, yesterday was the 77^th anniversary of the signing of the Washington Treaty, also known as the North Atlantic Treaty, which created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—commonly acronymized as NATO—a security alliance of 12 North American and European countries that has grown to 32. The current NATO roster includes three former Soviet republics—Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (which seem always to be mentioned as an indivisible trio)—as well as some former Warsaw Pact countries—Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

Membership in NATO requires unanimous consent—approval of all existing member nations, which must by the treaty be formally democratic and not actively invading neighbors, even non-members. The good neighbor part isn’t too much to ask, but it’s kept some wannabes—formally known as “aspirant countries”—out. In the early 2000s, for instance, not long after Vladimir Putrid came to dictatorial power, Russia allegedly considered membership but failed the two-pronged test, inter alia. Allegedly. But can’t you see Putrid doing it?

Ukraine notably and shamefully hasn’t been allowed to join NATO because the current members are afraid—not just reluctant—to rub Vladimir Putrid the wrong way. And Donald Trump, who has it in for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, doesn’t help Ukraine’s case. Or America’s case, for that matter, since he wants to destroy NATO in his pursuit of world domination.

On the other hand, Switzerland (officially the Swiss Confederation), Austria (officially the Republic of Austria), Malta (officially the Republic of Malta), and the Republic of Ireland (officially Ireland) have chosen not to belong to NATO citing their neutrality, such as it may have been and may be. Or not.

And it’s certainly good that the airman who was shot down a couple of days ago over what Donald Trump insisted the other night was a “beaten and completely decimated Iran” was able to avoid capture and was rescued today. But what was a bird colonel doing flying a combat mission as a weapons system officer in the back seat of an F-15E?