Posted on 04/23/2014 4:41:30 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
US troops arriving in Eastern Europe. Is it more than symbolic?
A contingent of 150 US troops began arriving in Poland Wednesday, the first of four such units being deployed for training exercises in Eastern Europe in a move criticized as unlikely to impress Russia.
By Anna Mulrine, Staff writer / April 23, 2014
Washington
The Pentagon is sending a contingent of 150 US troops to Poland this week, the first piece of what US officials describe as an effort to reassure Eastern European allies that the United States has their back in the wake of Russian aggression.
The contingent, which began arriving Wednesday, is the first of four such units headed to Eastern Europe for training exercises. While some military analysts say the deployments will have little to no impact on the tense military situation in the region, the Pentagon insists that its reply to Russian troops movements near Ukraine is not just a symbolic gesture.
“Anytime you put troops on the ground and doing exercises – in this case for a month at a time – it’s more than symbology,” Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said in a briefing with reporters Tuesday. “The kind of work that we’re going to be doing is real infantry training. And that’s not insignificant.”
There will be a “company-sized” contingent of US troops headed to Poland for “the first in a series of expanded US land force training exercises.” In the coming days, US troops will also be heading to Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia for similar exercises, for a total of 600 troops in the region by the end of the week.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
About Poland, I do give a tinker’s damn, however I feel about deploying US troops there. But just in case, we gotta ask: this time will they be allowed to protect the ambassador?
would we could have deployed 150 fine troops to protest Stevens in the money exchange for Stinger Missiles on 9/11 there would be a bunch of dead moslims burning in hell.
Bad omen and real bad decision.
Either you to all in or don’t go at all.
150 troops? Seems like baraq is provoking Putin to do something and the 150 will be sitting ducks.
Frickin wow.
I’m pretty darn sure those single fellas are going to have a very good time when on leave.
Thanks Irenic.
Looks like a Ranger outfit.
And no, it’s not all about Obama, special interests or manipulated images of Ivan riding various animals.
********
No. A big part of it is testing to destruction.
Active Duty ping.
Knew I’d seen this before. Took a while to find:
Russia transfers nine warplanes to Belarus to ‘counter massing of forces on the border’
Six Russian Sukhoi-27 fighter jets and three transport planes have been deployed at Bobruisk airfield in Belarus. Earlier this week Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko invited Russian forces to fend off potential NATO threat.
“In case of continuing build-up of military forces in countries bordering Belarus, the country will take adequate response measures,” says a statement from the country’s Defense Ministry in Minsk.
NATO is sending 12 F-16 craft in Poland, in the wake of the Crimea crisis, and Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has asked for an even greater US presence. Baltic states have also requested military assistance from NATO.
Just like their NATO counterparts, the Russian aircraft in Belarus will participate in a joint training exercise.
“The joint air defense system [between Russia and Belarus] is intended to guarantee collective security in Eastern Europe,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
Russian army’s chief of staff Valery Gerasimov informed chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, Knud Bartels, of the developments in a phone conversation on Thursday evening.
http://rt.com/news/belarus-planes-nato-poland-594/
150 troops?
Wow! That will have Putin shaking in his boots.
That and knowing how seldom Obaba fibs /s.
150 troops. No single EU country could muster 150 friggin soldiers?
This is laughable.
Obama is not fooling anyone.
Obama is so “not into Europe.”
Obama would rather bomb Mohammar Ghadaffi and his camels than take on any real strategic conflict.
America as an international police power is dead.Our allies tremble.And there is that POS Obama in Japan, assuring that the USA will protect Japan against China.....with what? Chopsticks? ( Obama has doomed the US military, cutting it way past the bone, to give his Comunity Organizers big bucks.)
Exactly.. thank you.
My friend Jim (now deceased) always told me he was in Vietnam when no one was in Vietnam. He said he got there because he had been in jail and joined the military to get out of his sentence.
Kind of like how Poland snipped off a chunk of Czechoslovakia after Hitler completed his takeover in late ‘38.Is Belarus playing the Polish role here?
Just enough to piss of Putin, but not even a speedbump.
Putin is getting really scared now. Yeah right he is laughing right now at Obama whom bowed to a robot in Japan.
150 troops? I think the liberals would “feel” a lot better having a gun buyback somewhere.
“The joint air defense system [between Russia and Belarus] is intended to guarantee collective security in Eastern Europe,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.”
The only Russian based collectives are meant to keep nations from fleeing the third world Russians.
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