This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Poland welcomes biggest deployment of American tanks and troops in decades
- US troop deployment in Poland angers Russia
Poland welcomes biggest deployment of American tanks and troops in decades
Prime Minister of Poland Beata Szydlo and Maj. Gen. Jaroslaw Mika, commander of Poland’s 11th Armored Cavalry Division, conduct a review of U.S. and Polish troops during an official ceremony in Zagan, Poland (DVIDS)
People across Poland are celebrating “Operation Resolve,” the arrival to Poland the largest US military deployment to Europe in decades. The deployment includes about 4,000 troops and also 2,400 pieces of military equipment, including tanks and Humvees.
The deployment is a reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula. Other countries in eastern Europe are concerned that they will be the next victim of a Russian invasion, and it’s hoped that the presence of US troops will deter Russia.
Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said,
“Welcome to Poland. … The presence of American soldiers in Poland is another step in our strategy to ensure safety and security for Poland and the region. …
It’s a great day today when we can welcome, here in Zagan, American soldiers who represent the best, the greatest army in the world.”
Poland’s Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz said:
“We have waited for you for a very long time. We waited for decades, sometimes feeling we had been left alone, sometimes almost losing hope, sometimes feeling that we were the only ones who protected civilization from aggression that came from the east.”
The American troops will be part of a Nato contingent that will include troops from Britain and Canada. The troops will be rotated every nine months through Poland, the Baltic countries, Bulgaria and Romania in order to provide a technical workaround to a promise made to Moscow after the fall of the Soviet Union that Nato would not permanently base large numbers of forces east of Germany. Deutsche Welle and CNN and AFP
US troop deployment in Poland angers Russia
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is always calling everyone he dislikes “Nazis” and “Fascists,” but he doesn’t like to admit that Russia’s were also “Nazis and Fascists” prior Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Russia. Hitler and Josef Stalin had signed a treaty (the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact) in 1939 where they split up Poland between them. The agreement also divided Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania between the Nazis and the Communists. It was only in 1941, when the Nazis invaded Russia, that Stalin finally learned being a Nazi is not a good thing. Even so, after Hitler was defeated, Stalin’s Soviet forces occupied Poland and other east European countries for decades.
These events are far ancient history to today’s young generations in America and Western Europe, but they’re still very raw memories to the people of Poland and other East European countries. They’ve seen Russia invade and annex parts of Georgia and Ukraine, and they have no doubts that Russia would invade their countries, as has happened in the past.
Putin press spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the US troops in Poland would be “a threat to Russia’s national security.”
It’s hard to believe that 5,000 American troops would be a threat to Russia’s security, inasmuch as Russia has something like 330,000 troops along its western border. Furthermore, Russia has long-range Iskander cruise missiles in Kaliningrad that can be made nuclear.
The US deployment is being described as a “tripwire” force, designed to prevent Russia from getting away with an easy invasion of some other country, as they did with Georgia and Ukraine. It’s thought that Russia would not be willing to risk a larger war by attacking an American force of any size.
Russian military expert Vladimir Kozin says that another reasons for the deployment is that outgoing President Obama wants to box in Donald Trump:
“According to the German military, some 900 railroad cars will be needed to deliver all this equipment to the deployment sites. But what is the reason? First, [US President Barack] Obama wants to play a mean trick on President-elect Donald Trump who won the election.”
It’s worth mentioning that there’s one other possible theory why Obama did this in the last few days of his administration: It’s possible that Trump asked Obama to do it before leaving office, so that he wouldn’t have to do it.
Kozin said that the deployment is unprecedented since the collapse of the Soviet Union, and that the US is forcing Europe to accept it:
“Finally, the US wants to maintain tensions around the world and particularly in Europe. They want to turn the region into another tinderbox ready to ignite. This number one priority. …
The US and NATO plan to increase aerial, anti-submarine, missile defense and intelligence activities with the use of heavy military equipment. In order to justify sanctions, the situation needs to be tense all the time. Europe is becoming a prisoner of this new Cold War initiated by Obama.”
Sputnik News (Moscow) and Deutsche Welle (14-Nov-2016) and Sky News
Related Articles
- Poland surges past the EU in military modernization and growth (21-Dec-2013)
- Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland forming alliance to confront Russia (27-Nov-2014)
- Poland to move thousands of troops east in reaction to Russian threat (28-Oct-2014)
- Consequences of Russia/Georgia conflict spread to southern Caucasus (03-Sep-2008)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Poland, Beata Szydlo, Jaroslaw Mika, Antoni Macierewicz, Operation Resolve, Ukraine, Crimea, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Dmitry Peskov, Kaliningrad, Vladimir Kozin
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The views in this World View article are those of the author, John Xenakis, based on Generational Dynamics analyses of historic and current events, and do not necessarily represent the views of Algora Publishing.
[“Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is always calling everyone he dislikes “Nazis” and “Fascists,” but he doesn’t like to admit that Russia’s were also “Nazis and Fascists” prior Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Russia.”] — So now Russia is not only Communist but also Nazi, and not only Nazi, also Fascist. What else? Reptiles from out space? Little Alien Green-Men ?
Why this irational hatred of Russia? Where do you get your marching orders from? MIT?! No. CIA maybe.
Why your irrational hatred of common sense? And who do you get your
marching orders from — Noam Chomsky?
You’re obviously too dumb to even know what the Molotov–Ribbentrop
Pact was.
I have the guts to write well-researched well-sourced analytical
articles — almost 4,000 of them in the last 15 years. They’re all
posted on my web site for anyone to read, and they’re all attributable
to me, as opposed to some anonymous ghost. I have tens of thousands
of regular readers, on web sites and through e-mail.
You, on the other hand, are like a Macedonian teenage girl posting any
fake news she wants, holding the same extreme, loony views as Noam
Chomsky, hiding and cowering behind an “anonymous” handle.
How about posting some links, if they exist, to something you’ve
written? How many people read what you’ve written?
Well researched?! . . . Who are you fooling? All your arguments are ad hominem insults and dubious anecdotes from hearsay from anonymous sources.
What do you, a mathematician, know about such murky events of history other than tabloid garbage?
I am afraid that Algora gave you their space in order to make a punching bag out of you. And, yes, better stick with Chomsky than the CIA. You brave agent of influence.
No, you’re completely wrong, as usual. My thousands of articles are
all well-researched.
On the other hand, when I’m responding to moronic comments from idiots
like you, I feel free to point out that you represent the views of
extreme loons like Noam Chomsky, and that you’re too stupid to even
know what the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was.
Once again, let’s see some links to something you’ve written. Or
maybe I was right that you’re a pathetic barking dog, a gutless
wonder, a worthless troll, who’s never even written anything, and is
now cowering behind an “anonymous” handle, afraid that if you posted
your real name then everyone could see what a complete fool you are.
However, I will ask you something about one of your sentences:
>>>[Quote: Anonymous]I am afraid that Algora gave you their space in order to make a punching bag out of you.
What do you mean by that?