Russia has threatened Sweden with nukes.
> We should be adding backwards countries that share borders with or are targets of major enemies
Sweden serves a very strategic purpose against Russia, the old enemy of USA, by making Östersjön a NATO sea and with the island of Gotland as a base.
This is either irony or insanity. What good did the two previous US/Nato wars in the region accomplish? Very little if anything at all.
Imagine a world where the US had not sullied its international reputation by invading countries and killing hundreds of thousands.
For example, Georgia is a candidate member, and it's technically in both Asia & Europe.
The US used to have treaty with Taiwan. There was proposed NEATO in the 50s, but Korea wasn't over WW2, and Japan is defense-only in constitution.
The big problem is that signing defense treaty with Taiwan would require change to the status quo and probably kick off a war.