SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, prepare to unload their Armor assets for war games with NATO and host nations across Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland in September 2014. (Photo: U.S. Army by 2LT Benton Conque, 2-8 CAV Assistant Operations Officer/cc/flickr)
'Back to the Future': US Military Preparing Mobilization to Russian Border States
White House is likely to approve plan to send enough heavy artillery to arm up to 5,000 troops by months' end
Jun 14, 2015
In a move observers say is sure to exacerbate military tensions with Russia, the Pentagon is poised to send enough tanks and heavy artillery for as many as 5,000 U.S. troops to the Eastern Bloc and Baltic States, the Polish Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday.
Citing anonymous senior officials briefed on the Pentagon proposal, the New York Timesreports that such approval is likely to come from Defense Sectary Ashton Carter and the White House before the NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium later this month.
If approved, the move "would represent the first time since the end of the Cold War that the United States has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that had once been part of the Soviet sphere of influence," the Times reports.
"It's like taking NATO back to the future," former defense official and senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security Julianne Smith told the Times. The "prepositioned" stocks would be enough to equip a brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.
The report continues:
As the proposal stands now, a company's worth of equipment -- enough for about 150 soldiers -- would be stored in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enough for a company or possibly a battalion -- about 750 soldiers -- would be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary, they said.
American military specialists have conducted site surveys in the countries under consideration, and the Pentagon is working on estimates about the costs to upgrade railways, build new warehouses and equipment-cleaning facilities, and to replace other Soviet-era facilities to accommodate the heavy American weaponry. The weapons warehouses would be guarded by local or security contractors, and not by American military personnel, officials said.
According to a senior military official, a "brigade's worth of equipment" would include about 1,200 vehicles, including some 250 M1-A2 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and armored howitzers.
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak reportedly met with Washington last month to discuss the mobilization, which is part of NATO's plan to "develop rapid deployment 'Spearhead' forces aimed at deterring Kremlin attempts to destabilize former Soviet bloc countries now entrenched inside NATO and the EU."
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
In a move observers say is sure to exacerbate military tensions with Russia, the Pentagon is poised to send enough tanks and heavy artillery for as many as 5,000 U.S. troops to the Eastern Bloc and Baltic States, the Polish Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday.
Citing anonymous senior officials briefed on the Pentagon proposal, the New York Timesreports that such approval is likely to come from Defense Sectary Ashton Carter and the White House before the NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium later this month.
If approved, the move "would represent the first time since the end of the Cold War that the United States has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that had once been part of the Soviet sphere of influence," the Times reports.
"It's like taking NATO back to the future," former defense official and senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security Julianne Smith told the Times. The "prepositioned" stocks would be enough to equip a brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.
The report continues:
As the proposal stands now, a company's worth of equipment -- enough for about 150 soldiers -- would be stored in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enough for a company or possibly a battalion -- about 750 soldiers -- would be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary, they said.
American military specialists have conducted site surveys in the countries under consideration, and the Pentagon is working on estimates about the costs to upgrade railways, build new warehouses and equipment-cleaning facilities, and to replace other Soviet-era facilities to accommodate the heavy American weaponry. The weapons warehouses would be guarded by local or security contractors, and not by American military personnel, officials said.
According to a senior military official, a "brigade's worth of equipment" would include about 1,200 vehicles, including some 250 M1-A2 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and armored howitzers.
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak reportedly met with Washington last month to discuss the mobilization, which is part of NATO's plan to "develop rapid deployment 'Spearhead' forces aimed at deterring Kremlin attempts to destabilize former Soviet bloc countries now entrenched inside NATO and the EU."
Lauren McCauley
Lauren McCauley is a former senior editor for Common Dreams covering national and international politics and progressive news. She is now the Editor of Maine Morning Star. Lauren also helped produce a number of documentary films, including the award-winning Soundtrack for a Revolution and The Hollywood Complex, as well as one currently in production about civil rights icon James Meredith. Her writing has been featured on Newsweek, BillMoyers.com, TruthDig, Truthout, In These Times, and Extra! the newsletter of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. She currently lives in Kennebunk, Maine with her husband, two children, a dog, and several chickens.
In a move observers say is sure to exacerbate military tensions with Russia, the Pentagon is poised to send enough tanks and heavy artillery for as many as 5,000 U.S. troops to the Eastern Bloc and Baltic States, the Polish Defense Ministry confirmed on Sunday.
Citing anonymous senior officials briefed on the Pentagon proposal, the New York Timesreports that such approval is likely to come from Defense Sectary Ashton Carter and the White House before the NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium later this month.
If approved, the move "would represent the first time since the end of the Cold War that the United States has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member nations in Eastern Europe that had once been part of the Soviet sphere of influence," the Times reports.
"It's like taking NATO back to the future," former defense official and senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security Julianne Smith told the Times. The "prepositioned" stocks would be enough to equip a brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers.
The report continues:
As the proposal stands now, a company's worth of equipment -- enough for about 150 soldiers -- would be stored in each of the three Baltic nations: Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Enough for a company or possibly a battalion -- about 750 soldiers -- would be located in Poland, Romania, Bulgaria and possibly Hungary, they said.
American military specialists have conducted site surveys in the countries under consideration, and the Pentagon is working on estimates about the costs to upgrade railways, build new warehouses and equipment-cleaning facilities, and to replace other Soviet-era facilities to accommodate the heavy American weaponry. The weapons warehouses would be guarded by local or security contractors, and not by American military personnel, officials said.
According to a senior military official, a "brigade's worth of equipment" would include about 1,200 vehicles, including some 250 M1-A2 tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, and armored howitzers.
Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak reportedly met with Washington last month to discuss the mobilization, which is part of NATO's plan to "develop rapid deployment 'Spearhead' forces aimed at deterring Kremlin attempts to destabilize former Soviet bloc countries now entrenched inside NATO and the EU."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.