NATO Plans to Send 4 More Battalions to Baltic Region

[jpak]

Source: USNews.com

NATO is greatly ratcheting up its presence near Russia, announcing Monday it will send an additional four battalions to the Baltic states and Poland, in continued tensions with Russia.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said defense ministers in the alliance will formally approve the plan during meetings that begin Tuesday in Brussels. Approximately 4,000 troops from assorted NATO countries will be involved.

"This will send a clear signal that NATO stands ready to defend any ally," Stoltenberg said.

U.S. NATO Ambassador Douglas Lute said many of the other details will be announced at the July NATO summit in Warsaw, Poland. He said the troops will stay as long as necessary.

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Read more: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-13/nato-plans-to-send-4-more-battalions-to-baltic-region

[villager]

1. They've decided we really "need" another, massive war.

At a minimum, I guess both sides have need for the return of cold war hysteria.

[MrTriumph]

2. Putin is the problem.

NATO has an obligation to assist its members.

[villager]

4. Putin is *a* problem. But it's not like we don't have certain interested "actors"

....who aren't imagining "benefits" from a renewed Cold War....

[DetlefK]

7. Who is "they"?

And please give a more detailed answer than "military-industrial complex".

[Igel]

6. Russia does.

In the US media, you sort of have to look for these kinds of troop movements or announcements of military exercises. You more often get concerns about Russian troop movements or such near the top of the news, but it's framed as a concern or worry.

In Russia, troop movements and exercises are often on the front page or in the 30-minute news broadcasts. Even if they're nowhere near where NATO is infringing on Russian sovereignty by having its troops hosted in another country that was formerly an occupied territory or vassal state. You sort of have to get past them to get to other news. And if there's a foreign reaction to Russian exercises and troop movements, it's interfering in the actions of a sovereign state, and neo-imperialist. What happens on a country's soil is entirely that country's business.

You do get angry rants about troop movements in other countries, and how Russia will respond and be victorious. There's never any acknowledgement that these are in other countries and therefore it's not Russia's business. It's usually, and for decades has been, counched as preliminary to invasion or intimidation. (An invasion that has yet to happen, of course, due solely to how great Russia is. CTs are infinitely malleable.) You do get discussion about how Russia is right to be paranoid--after all, there was the massive European involvement in the civil war (not!), Hitler's Germany, WWI, the Turks, Napoleon, the Swedes once and future attacks, and you can never trust Poland and Lithuania--they had an empire once, perhaps they again want to subjugate Russia. All of this justifies being proactive. But, of course, Russia's actions in Poland for the last 300 years ... nah. Russia good, others need Russian guidance, the guidance of the special people, the good Communists, and the Third Rome.

[Geronimoe]

3. 4,000 troops is not going to convince Putin of anything

[DetlefK]

8. This is not about firepower. It's a political threat.

These troops are a sign that the NATO-countries stick together. A sign towards the NATO-members as well as a sign towards Russia.



I think, the current NATO-Russia-conflict stems from Russia's geopolitical delusion:
Russia demands the same diplomatic and political influence it had during the days of the Soviet Union. But Russia no longer has that power, so the West no longer treats it with that courtesy and instead treats it like any other country.
NATO grows by accepting new members, not because of some plan but simply because it can, while Russia tries not to lose the last remains of diplomatic power left over from Soviet-Union-days.
And when the revolution in Ukraine accidently weakened that imaginary international russian empire that Putin had tried to hold together, he mistakenly concluded that it was a deliberate attack.

NATO has weakened the imaginary russian empire that Putin regards as real and that NATO doesn't regard as real.

[Night Watchman]

5. Good

Distrust of Russia is one of my three Conservative Outliers, the other two being support for nuclear power as an energy source and disgust at the sludge in movies and on TV.