The European countries wanted to join NATO for several reasions, First, being a NATO member meant that they did not have to spend money on defense - they could spend their tax money on health care, public education and so on, because the USA was guaranteeing their security. If anyone attacked them, they had the full backing of the gigantic US military to protect them under Article 5.

That is why we are now seeing ridiculous things likme the entire British Army being able to fit into a mid-sized football stadium, and Denmark sending ALL their artillery pieces to Ukraine, and other EU NATO members having literally NO more stockpiles of weapons or ammo.

In short, joining NATO just made good economic sense.

Why Sweden and Finland decided to join NATO is a mystery to me. When they were neutral, they had nothing to fear. Now that they are in NATO, they have multiple Russian nuclear missiles targeted at their capitol cities.

I submit it to you: why would they join NATO? What do they get besides a big nuclear missile target painted on Helsinki and Stockholm?