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In yet another sign that Washington
is keen on preserving the sanctity
of sovereign nations’ right to
choose peaceful democracy over
violent tyranny, the US is set to
use Poland as a staging ground in
an effort to prove (because some
folks weren’t sure) that despite
the UK’s inexplicable reluctance to
engage in an arms race with Russia
and China, the US can still blow
things up at the drop of a dime.
Here’s
The State Dept with more:
This week the U.S. Army
deployed to Poland about 30
vehicles and 100 troops from the
5th Battalion/7th Air Defense
Regiment, based in Germany. The
U.S. soldiers will train for
several days with Polish troops
from the 37th Missile Squadron of
Air Defense, the 38th Support
Squadron, and the 3rd Brigade of
Air Defense Command.
The American
forces will set up their Patriot
air and missile defense assets in
Poland to demonstrate the U.S.
Army’s capacity to deploy Patriot
systems rapidly within NATO
territory. Training elements
will include defending high value
assets, ground forces, and
population areas from ballistic
missiles and air strikes.
Yes, “rapid deployment” of
missiles systems. This makes a lot
of sense because as we explained
yesterday, Vladimir Putin (fresh
from an as yet unexplained media
hiatus), is busy conducting “snap
combat readiness drills” in
territories which the Kremlin has
Santander-Consumer-style
repossessed. But that’s certainly
not the only reason for the White
House’s move to ratchet up its
Eastern European war readiness. As
we noted on Monday, Moscow recently
made it clear that it isn’t afraid
to instigate a
nuclear holocaust if it means
defending Russia’s natural right to
annex a peninsula:
Having re-emerged from his
hibernation, Vladimir Putin is
wasting no time getting back to
business. Having paced 40,000
troops on "snap-readiness," AP
reports that a documentary which
aired last night shows Putin
explaining that Russia was ready
to bring its nuclear weapons into
a state of alert during last
year's tensions over the Crimean
Peninsula and the overthrow of
Ukraine's president, and admitted
well-armed forces in unmarked
uniforms who took control of
Ukrainian military facilities in
Crimea were Russian soldiers. In
the documentary, which marks a
year since the referendum, Putin
says of the nuclear preparedness,
"We were ready to do this ...
(Crimea) is our historical
territory. Russian people live
there. They were in danger. We
cannot abandon them."
So regardless of how rational
that sounds (i.e. some people who
may or may not be Russians live
there, so it makes sense that we
would deploy nuclear weapons on
anyone who questions our right to
unilaterally commandeer an entire
republic), the US isn’t necessarily
ok with what the West perceives as
unnecessary acts of aggression and
so, in order to counter the idea
that military posturing is an
effective foreign policy tool,
Washington will get more aggressive
militarily:
All of these Operation
Atlantic Resolve exercises aim to
reassure allies and demonstrate
the freedom of movement of NATO
defense assets throughout NATO
territory. The United
States remains dedicated to
maintaining a persistent
rotational presence of air,
ground, and naval resources in
Poland and the Baltic States as
long as the need exists to
reassure our allies and deter
Russian aggression.
Meanwhile, US allies such as the
UK, Australia, and South Korea are
set to join the China-led Asian
Infrastructure Development Bank and
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is
scheduled to meet with Putin next
month in what looks like an attempt
to undermine the perception of
Western economic dominance. In the
end, we've got posturing on both
sides, and with the US seemingly
determined to make a show of
strength in the Kremlin's backyard,
things could get interesting.
Stay tuned.
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