In the midst of deepening tension between US allies NATO and Russia, NATO is planning the largest military buildup along the Russian border since the cold war.
NATO called on allied governments this week to contribute whatever troops and equipment they can to the effort. According to Reuters, thousands of troops are expected to arrive in the coming days and weeks.
It was reported that Italy, France, Denmark and other European states are expected to join the NATO military divisions that will be led by the United States along Russia’s border.
On Wednesday, Britain announced it is sending hundreds of soldiers and hardware to Russia’s borders as part of a huge military deployment.
A total of 800 troops, drones and tanks are moving to Estonia as part of the biggest military build-up of NATO troops on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.
In addition to the forces allocated for his specific operation, NATO has an army of over 40,000 ready to be called up to fight at any time.
The US military claims that this threatening move is meant to act as a “deterrent” to the Russian military, but this is obvious a move that will escalate tensions and push towards a possible third world war.
“This is a credible deterrence, not to provoke a conflict but to prevent conflict,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday — ironically ignoring the fact that it is a de facto provocation.
Just imagine what would happen if Russian troops amassed along the Mexican border and told the US that this move was to ‘prevent conflict.’
The so-called Iskander-M cruise missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although NATO officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad.
The United States’ envoy to NATO, Douglas Lute, told reporters that NATO and the US military may consider Russia a threat if they had nuclear weapons within range of NATO’s deployment. This statement is insane considering the fact that the US military is the one that is many miles from home on the border of someone else’s lands.
“This deployment, if it becomes permanent if the presence of nuclear weapons were confirmed, would be a change in (Russia’s) security posture,” Lute said.
If anyone is a threat, it is NATO and the US government.
These military tensions are the result of an ongoing proxy war in Syria, in which Western powers are attempting to institute a regime change in the country by funding violent rebel groups. Meanwhile, Russia has interests in keeping their allies in the Syrian government in control, putting the two superpowers at odds.
Until now, Russia and the US have been fighting through third parties, just as they had during the previous Cold War, and the same type of situation is developing today.