(Kooperationen) NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

[revan]

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Critics call Poland Patriot missile plan a symbolic gesture

HEIDELBERG, Germany — Soldiers from U.S. Army Europe’s Patriot missile battalion could be deploying to Poland as soon as the spring for a six-month rotation as part of the Obama administration’s new missile defense plan in Eastern Europe.

But critics say the Patriot deployment — the first to put U.S. troops in Poland — is nothing more than a symbolic, diplomatic gesture.

U.S. Army Europe officials were in Warsaw working on the agreement shortly before Vice President Joe Biden traveled to Poland last month in the wake of the White House decision to change the Bush administration’s missile defense plan. Biden reassured Polish leaders that the new plan — although scrapping putting long-range missile interceptors in Poland — did not leave the country out of the loop. And he announced that a U.S. Patriot missile battery of about 100 soldiers would soon arrive on Polish soil.

U.S. Army Europe declined to confirm any upcoming Patriot deployment.

"There are no Patriots in Poland yet," said USAREUR spokesman Col. Bryan Hilferty. "It’s mostly pre-decisional at this point."

Still, the battery is expected to come from U.S. Army Europe’s one remaining Patriot unit, the 5th Battalion 7th Air Defense Artillery, based in Kaiserslautern.

"It is coming from Germany," said Jan Filip Stanilko, an analyst at the Warsaw-based Sobieski Institute, a political think tank. "It was settled during previous negotiations."

The previous negotiations were under the Bush administration, which had agreed as part of its ballistic missile-defense posture to place 10 ground-based, long-range missile interceptors on a base in Poland. The Patriot battery was an add-on, said John Pike, director of globalsecurity.org.

The intent of the Patriot was to guard and defend the missile base from potential Russian attack, Pike said.

But the Obama plan scrapped the Polish interceptors. Instead, it calls for sea-based interceptors in the Mediterranean.

So it’s not clear to Pike and others just what the Patriot battery would now protect.

"It’s totally nonsense," Stanilko said. "One battery doesn’t change anything. It can defend one district (of a city.) From a military point of view, it’s irrelevant; it won’t defend Poland at all. It’s a symbolic gesture."

Pike seconded the opinion.

"A complete waste of everybody’s time in order to save face," he said.

But not everyone agrees.

An analysis by Stratfor, a private geopolitical intelligence group, concluded that Biden’s Poland visit "reasserted American commitment to (Polish) security and promised the delivery of other weapons such as Patriot missile batteries, an impressive piece of hardware that really does enhance regional security …," according to its Web site.

Stanilko said the country would need 10 to 15 batteries to be protected from incoming missiles.

"There are four batteries just for Tokyo," Pike said. "I think Japan has a total of 20."

What the Polish government really seeks, Stanilko said, is American boots on its ground and permanent bases, to tie U.S. defense to the country with a small military and a long history of being invaded.

"Americans can move this installation and move out. We wanted something entrenched, unmovable," he said.

Poland figures that the U.S. would be more likely to respond if Poland were attacked if Americans were on the ground.

Stanilko pointed out that Poland had defense pacts with Great Britain and France before it was invaded in 1939. But neither came to its defense as it was invaded by both Germany and the Soviets.

After 40 years of Soviet domination, Poland views Russia as its biggest threat. "It’s from historical experience," Stanilko said. "If you ask any neighbor of Russia, they say that they are aggressive and imperialist."

In July, influential political figures Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel, among others, wrote an open letter to President Barack Obama warning him that Russia "is back as a revisionist power pursuing a 19th-century agenda with 21st-century tactics and methods.".....




...."America has no ability to help us," he said. "There are no strategic plans for central Europe. Even if the U.S. wanted to help us during a Russian invasion, hypothetically. We have no infrastructure, no ports, no airport big enough to receive troops. There are no procedures, no plans, no war games. It’s absurd to promise defense without the ability to do that."....

Der markierte Text in an sich schockierend, aber entsprich beim genauer überlegen der Wahrheit das nun vielleicht wenigstens ein NATO Plan geschmiedet wurde war wie Ingenieur auch sagte mehr als nur überfällig.
Die Wahrheit ist es ist schlicht schockierend wenn eine Alina noch dazu die angeblich mächtigste der Welt die auf das Gleichheitsprinzip basiert ihre Mitglieder vor Potenzeilen feinden nicht schützen will aus Angst vor den Kommentaren einer Dreckschleuder wie Rogosin oder eines Diktators in Kremel .

Wenn die NATO von etwas untergraben wird und wenn etwas sei zu m Papiertiger deklassieret ist es dieses erbärmliche Verhalten , den wenn man nicht mahl ein Blatt Papier ausarbeiten will wo ein Hypothetischer Verteidigungsplan thematisiert wird was soll man dann von so einer Allianz den noch halten ?

In den Artikel wird auch das Fehlen einer NATO Struktur in Ost Europa angesprochen die leider auch der Wahrheit entspricht mit Ausnahme einiger unter Busch rekurrierter Basen auf den Balkan bzw. in Rumänien und Bulgarien existieren überhaupt keine US oder NATO Basen anderer Länder in Osteuropa.