U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with his Polish counterpart Mariusz Blaszczak Tuesday to discuss Poland’s offer to spend $2 billion on a permanent base for U.S. troops and their families in the country. The base was jokingly called “Fort Trump” by Poland’s president after meetings with U.S. President Donald Trump.
“We are working out the details on what the offer is, what can best contribute to alliance unity, to alliance security and to the continued strengthening of the bilateral relationship,” Mattis told the press prior to his talks with Blaszczak.
This would be an improvement on my call following the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 for prepositioned equipment in Poland. But Russian behavior has worsened so my original proposal was based on not being too assertive in positioning American troops in the new NATO states in the east.
Still, while I'm not against American armored brigades in Poland, I think I'd prefer a permanent American presence in Poland consisting of air defense forces to protect equipment stored there for troops flown or moved overland into Poland in time of crisis.
As long as Belarus is neutral and not hosting Russian ground troops, Poland has enough of a buffer I think, to avoid needlessly stoking Russian paranoia.
But if we ever restore actual armored cavalry regiments to the Army, I'd consider putting one of those in Poland on a permanent basis.
