Zbig is still playing Chess.. ------------------------- When asked whether such a move would be a good idea, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski said he supports stationing US ground troops in Poland and the Baltics. “I think it’s simply common sense to have a politically significant, even if not large scale US military presence in the countries you mention,” Brzezinski wrote in an email Wednesday. “A tripwire has the same effect as a fence; it makes for more stable neighborly relations.” His son Ian, who served as deputy assistant defense secretary for Europe and NATO policy, said moving troops to Poland and other NATO nations would protect them from Russian aggression, but added that such a move would do nothing to stop Russia from taking further moves against Ukraine and Moldova. NATO’s response so far of sending a ship to the Black Sea, 175 Marines to Romania and aircraft to Poland and the Baltics has has been symbolic, the younger Brzezinski wrote in an email Wednesday. “At the same time it has refused Ukraine’s requests for military equipment to help defend itself against further Russian aggression and President Obama has asserted publicly that he will not allow a US ‘military excursion’ into Ukraine against Russia, a sentiment that has been reiterated by other allied leaders,” he wrote. “As a result, NATO, under US leadership, has drawn a red line in Europe along NATO’s eastern frontier, a red line that has left Ukraine militarily isolated, fending for itself — a de facto military carte blanche for further Russian military action against Ukraine if not also Moldova.” In addition to reassuring NATO’s eastern European members, the US government should impose tighter sanctions on Russia to deter it from moving farther into Ukraine, said Barry Pavel, vice president and director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security at the Atlantic Council. Russian President Vladimir Putin understands that an attack on a NATO member would be considered an attack on the vital interests of the United States, Pavel said Wednesday. “Even Putin, who doesn’t exactly have a functional decision-making process, knows there’s a big difference between attacking a NATO member and attacking a non-NATO member,” he said. Still, US military exercises in Eastern Europe could help to underpin diplomatic efforts to curb Russian ambitions in Ukraine, Pavel said defensenews/article/20140409/DEFREG01/304090029
Posted on: Thu, 10 Apr 2014 15:05:11 +0000
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