I hope this is more than an option:
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said permanently stationing an additional U.S. Army brigade in Europe is among options to beef up security as Russian troops remain massed along Ukraine’s eastern border.
We recently went from four brigades down to just two.
This CEPA paper discusses, among other things, moving our Stryker brigade from Germany to Poland:
The stationing of a U.S. ground unit in Poland – for example, by relocating elements from the 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment from their current billets in Vilseck, Germany – would be a good start. The unit’s antiarmor troop would hold particularly high symbolic value. Larger deployments may be necessary in the future depending on Russian behavior.
That sounds like a good idea. Strykers are light enough not to be an offensive threat. I think we could live without a brigade in Poland as long as the ability to deploy forces to Poland is improved, but this move would provide real reassurance to our allies.
Then we could move a new heavy brigade into Vilseck, Germany, putting our total maneuver brigades back to three (Stryker in Poland, parachute in Italy, and heavy in Germany).
My next priority would be to put equipment sets for two heavy brigades into southern Poland.
Eventually, I'd want a couple more brigades plus 18th Airborne Corps headquarters in Europe. (Starting at pg. 15. And once again I'll note that I have no idea why Military Review editors credited me with a PhD--I have a MA in history.)
In my opinion, anything less than a corps headquarters, with the ability to build up to 9+ maneuver brigades around the forward deployed units, is not a real warfighting force. That is a real deterrent rather than a mere tripwire deterrent that simply requires a potential enemy to decide to kill Americans as they roll to their objective.
And I'd like a Marine brigade's equipment moved to Latvia from Norway. It would probably be good to have a Marine battalion rotated through the site for security to prevent the loss of equipment to a Spetsnaz mission should Russia target the Baltic states.
We are apparently going to increase our forces in Romania where we currently rotate troops through for exercises.
I have some other suggestions here.
And if this seems provocative? Well, Russia changed the rules we've been operating under. Despite Russian outrage over our reaction to Russia's seizure of Crimea from Ukraine, let me quote that CEPA piece again:
The pledge to avoid placing military assets on new-member territory was made in exchange for Russia eschewing territorial aggression. Now that Moscow has become militarily aggressive, NATO should respond by changing its stance. Today’s NATO is still the product of an era when the major threats were to West Germany, not to eastern Poland or the Baltic States. As a result, risk is unevenly and unsustainably distributed between insulated Western and exposed Eastern members. The need to rectify this is not new. But Crimea has made it an existential imperative.
And while I think the immediate crisis is over, the Russians are still mucking about in eastern Ukraine:
Ukraine's state security service said on Saturday it had detained 15 people suspected of planning to overthrow the authorities in a mostly Russian-speaking eastern region and had confiscated hundreds of rifles, grenades and petrol bombs.
Yes. We kept our pledge to refrain from building real NATO military capabilities in new NATO states in the east. Russia voided the pledge by using force to change a border that Russia itself has recognized. So we must act accordingly to protect ourselves.
UPDATE: More from our Russian friends:
Around 100 pro-Russian protesters stormed the regional government building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Sunday and hung up a Russian flag in defiance of Kiev's pro-European government.
Dozens of protesters also stormed the offices of the state security service in nearby Luhansk and three people were injured, two protesters and a police officer, a Ukrainian television channel reported. Police declined to comment.
Yes, there are lots of ethnic Russians in the region and many have good feelings for Russia. But that doesn't mean they are in favor of being absorbed by Russia.
But that's the impression that Russia would like the world to have. So there will be events like these.
