Posted on 04/19/2014 11:24:30 AM PDT by neverdem
Poland will breathe a little easier because at the very least, American troops in Poland will be an effective trip wire and hedge against Russia making a move to reclaim the former Warsaw Pact country.
Poland and the United States will announce next week the deployment of U.S. ground forces to Poland as part of an expansion of NATO presence in Central and Eastern Europe in response to events in Ukraine. That was the word from Poland’s defense minister, Tomasz Siemoniak, who visited The Post Friday after meeting with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon on Thursday.
Siemoniak said the decision has been made on a political level and that military planners are working out details. There will also be intensified cooperation in air defense, special forces, cyberdefense and other areas. Poland will play a leading regional role, “under U.S. patronage,” he said.
But the defense minister also said that any immediate NATO response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, while important, matter less than a long-term shift in the defense postures of Europe and America. The United States, having announced a “pivot” to Asia, needs to “re-pivot” to Europe, he said, and European countries that have cut back on defense spending need to reverse the trends.
“The idea until recently was that there were no more threats in Europe and no need for a U.S. presence in Europe any more,” Siemoniak said, speaking through an interpreter. “Events show that what is needed is a re-pivot, and that Europe was safe and secure because America was in Europe.”
How likely is such a reversal on defense spending? Siemoniak said there was widespread support at a recent meeting of European defense ministers. “Now they’ll go back to their presidents...
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
It wasn’t 30 years ago, Russia is still there, and we are still a member of NATO.
And NATO has proven itself worthless in Iraq and Afghanistan and should be disbanded. We did our job and its time to pull up the drawbridge. Therefore, let the Europeans step up and take care of themselves for once.
You wrote a very clear and concise explanation of Poland’s current status of military readiness. I didn’t realize only Poland was smart enough or disciplined enough to maintain most of their weaponry. Now, we need to revert to the Cold War status and spend more on develpoment and maintenance.
If the talk goes to ‘temporarily reviving the draft’ get’s serious, I’ll know we are about to enter a brand new age of Hot Wars.
How's that going to happen when the country is broke and its leadership wholly corrupt and inept?
I’ve been looking at the Socialist world web site and other anti-American sites for the last hour, they seem to agree with your views and analysis of America and NATO and the West.
This is nothing but theater. There is no current threat to Poland.
Regardless, America no longer has either the military or political power to defeat the Russians in Eastern Europe, thanks to our own country's internal decadence and corruption.
Who said anything about war?
Here is more writings from your side.
WORLD SOCIALIST web site:
“Following its support for the coup, the Polish government went immediately over to banging the drums of war against Russia. After the regional parliament in Crimea had decided on March 2 to break away from Ukraine, Tusk said, “The only means to stop Russia and avoid tragic conflicts in this region are through massive pressure and persistence on the part of Europe, the United States and Canada.” On March 12, during a state visit to Warsaw by Merkel, Tusk called for the EU to become independent of Russian energy exports.
The aggressive policy towards Russia has been accompanied by intensive contacts with the new Ukrainian government, which includes the fascist party Svoboda, with its three ministers and other high-ranking officials. Several mutual state visits and countless phone calls were aimed at supporting the coup cabinet and ensuring it followed the desired course. On 3 April, Komorovski also received Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili in Warsaw, and called for the country to conclude an Association Agreement with the EU and NATO accession.
The Polish government is hoping that its aggressive foreign policy in the interests of German and US imperialism will bolster its regional strength. Seventy-five years after the German invasion of Poland, this vassal status leads the Polish government to call for German leadership in Europe and the stationing of German troops in the country.
In 2003, the Polish government had taken the side of aggressive imperialism and supported the US invasion of Iraq. Today, the country has a government that wants to be particularly close to Germany and the US. Since 1992, Foreign Minister Sikorski has been married to the American journalist Anne Applebaum, who strongly advocates an anti-Russian policy.
For the US and Germany, Poland is of key strategic importance in expanding their influence over Ukraine. As early as 2012 in the book “Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power”, the Polish-American political scientist and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote, “Without Ukraine, Russia will not be an empire. Some Eastern European countries, such as Poland and Ukraine, thanks to their size, location and economic and military potential, can have a real impact on the balance of power in Europe.”
The vassal service of the Polish government is the logical consequence of the restoration of capitalism 25 years ago. A small group of careerists and bureaucrats sold off the state-owned enterprises to the highest bidders, and placed the country on the drip-feed of foreign direct investment from which these layers live.
This had disastrous consequences for Polish workers. During the years of so-called “shock therapy” and thereafter, their social rights were declared null and void. The education and social systems were smashed up, millions of jobs destroyed and wages reduced to subsistence level or below.”
Has Putin threatened anyone? When the Ukraine govt. fell. Russia moved to protect her economic interests in the Crimea. That’s the only offensive move I have seen. Our “leaders” seem to be milking this for everything they can get, and there is nothing there. Like you said, pure theater.
Putin has not threatened anyone who hasn't threatened Russia's legitimate security interests. I agree that Putin's annexation of Crimea was a defensive move -- but not just to protect Russia's economic interests there. Crimea, with its long-establish Russian naval and air bases, is absolutely vital to Russia's strategic defense of the Black Sea and its own southern borders. Decades of Cold War against a Soviet Union that no longer exists have made us creatures of habit and blinded us from the existence of the real threat to freedom that now sits in Brussels. It is the European Union and its military arm, NATO, which is now on the march and basing its troops, planes and ships along Russia's borders. The world has changed, but we are distracted from seeing it.
So what would YOU do, keeping in mind that Putin now holds all the cards and knows that America is bankrupt, weakened, and ALL bluff?
LOL - love the graphic. World class defender of freedom - Hairy Reid. I feel so much safer now.
The Socialist left and the international communists don't want any NATO or international pressure applied to Russia either.
They too want NATO to not show any reaction at all, to be afraid to even relocate small numbers of troops from one NATO country to another.
Just heard a report that the deployment will be a grand total of...wait for it...150 men in each Estonia and Poland.
I have fun watching the secrecy and misinformation fly. Amazing to watch. Beginning to think some of putin’s butt boys are fishing for information here ... makes me lol.
Amen.
I am so sick of defending Eu and securing their oil for them. Let them work on it and take care of their own business.
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