NATO Preparing Several Thousand Troops to Counter Russia

 

This immediate reaction force needs to be based in Romania with access to a major Naval Base as well and an airbase That provides tactical mobility in the Black Sea and closeness to supporting Kiev where the current threat happens to be and also were NATO is weakest on the ground.  The Baltic States have enough of their own muscle to discourage any adventurism from anyone.

 I would go further of course and place a temporary force in place at the city of Kiev and establish an airbase there.  That would be enough to end Russian adventurism however disguised and allow the Ukrainian Army to fully work on crushing the so called rebellion.  

The force in place in Romania is then well placed to support a new strategic positioning of troops in the nascent Kurdistan which can stabilize those border regions as well.   All this is necessary to undo the damage produced by Obama's outright blundering to date.   On the other hand it seizes the two  best forward positions against a revival of any European adventurism and confronts the Turks, the Persians, the Shiites in Iraq and the Sunnis in Greater Syria  with a seriously well defended hard point that promises unlimited retaliation and application of power.

With that in motion we need two international boundary commissions established to work out viable national borders and to settle and or resettle all the outstanding zones of potential conflict.

NATO Preparing Several Thousand Troops to Counter Russia


By Associated Press | September 5, 2014




http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/936488-nato-preparing-several-thousand-troops-to-counter-russia/?photo=2


NEWPORT, Wales—Seeking to counter Russian aggression, NATO leaders approved plans Friday to post several thousand troops in Eastern Europe who could quickly mobilize if an alliance country in the region were to come under attack.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the new unit would send a clear message to potential aggressors, namely Russia.

“Should you even think of attacking one ally, you will be facing the whole alliance,” he declared as a two-day NATO summit in southern Wales drew to a close.

Confronting another pressing international crisis, Rasmussen said NATO stands “ready to help” Iraq fight back against a violent militant group, but noted that the Iraqi government has not made any such request. U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron have been pressing their NATO counterparts to join a coalition of nations that could degrade militants from the Islamic State group.


The threat posed by the Islamic State overshadowed some of the NATO summit’s official agenda. Yet the leaders still spent a considerable amount of their time discussing the crisis in Ukraine, with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko taking on a high-profile role during the talks.

The summit coincided with the start of peace talks involving Ukraine, Russia and pro-Russian rebels that kicked off Friday in Minsk, Belarus. The talks are aimed at achieving a cease-fire to bring an end to the months of fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists.

While Poroshenko voiced “careful optimism” about the talks, Western leaders remain skeptical. The U.S. and Europe have warned that they stand ready to levy more economic sanctions on Russia, a step a top White House official said could occur within days.

The crisis in Ukraine has been among the most pressing issues on the agenda during the NATO meetings. While Ukraine is not part of the NATO alliance, Russia’s actions have prompted fears among member countries in Central and Eastern Europe that the Kremlin could seek to make gains beyond their borders as well.

Rasmussen said the high-readiness force would give NATO a “continuous presence” in Eastern Europe, with alliance countries contributing forces on a rotational basis. There were no final decisions on where the forces would be based, but Rasmussen said Poland, Romania and the Baltics have all indicated a willingness to host the facilities.

Cameron said his nation is willing to contribute 3,500 personnel to the rapid response force. He said its headquarters could be in Poland, with forward units in the easternmost NATO member countries and equipment stockpiled there in advance.

“We must be able to act more swiftly,” Cameron said.

In another signal of its commitment to protecting its members in Eastern Europe, NATO announced that its next summit, in 2016, will be held in Warsaw, Poland. The Polish capital was “the place where the Warsaw Pact was created and overthrown,” said Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, referring to the now-defunct military alliance created by the Soviets to challenge NATO.


On the sidelines of the summit, Cameron and Obama were also meeting with their counterparts to rally support for a mission to confront the Islamic State through military might, diplomatic efforts and economic penalties. Both leaders had meetings planned Friday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a key regional player whose support would be crucial to defeating the militants.

Obama also met Friday morning with French President Francois Hollande.

Rasmussen suggested that NATO was unlikely to take imminent military action against the militants in Iraq, but said he could foresee the alliance engaging in a “defense capacity-building mission” there.

The U.S. is already launching airstrikes against the Islamic State in Iraq, and Britain has joined up for humanitarian aid drops to besieged minority groups. Obama is weighing whether to extend the military mission into neighboring Syria, where the extremists have establisheed a safe haven.

On other fronts, alliance leaders pressed NATO countries to follow through on commitments to spend 2 percent of their nations’ gross domestic product on defense. Only four NATO nations meet that threshold: the U.S., Britain, Greece and Estonia.