It sounds good at first....until you get to the actual numbers involved:
The Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, to deter any possible further Russian aggression in Europe, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
Citing U.S. and allied officials, the newspaper said that if approved the proposal would mark the first time since the Cold War that Washington has stationed heavy military equipment in the newer NATO member states in Eastern Europe that were once part of the Soviet sphere of influence. [emphasis added]
Five thousand troops is approximately a brigade. It's roughly eight times smaller than the number of troops we still station in South Korea as a cannon fodder tripwire in case the NoKos decide to send their million-man hordes southward across the 38th parallel. It's not cannon fodder, it's a cannon fod. It's not enough to even qualify as a joke. Putin's tank armies wouldn't even realize they were rolling right over the top of it, and even if they did, they wouldn't care because the idea of a shooting war with the United States has long since lost any shock value or deterrent power it ever had in the minds of our enemies.
It's the NATO "rapid reaction force" from nine months ago, with even less swagger, for an organization that barely exists anymore.
And it's probably all the tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other heavy weapons we've got left.
Maybe Red Barry is holding an auction, and considers Ebay "too capitalist" for his sensitive "progressive" tastes.
Hell, he isn't giving it away to local police departments anymore. Might as well let Czar Vlad scrap it for him.
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