{"id":86093,"date":"2017-01-30T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-01-30T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=86093"},"modified":"2017-01-29T19:49:28","modified_gmt":"2017-01-29T19:49:28","slug":"how-nato-is-becoming-a-threat-to-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/01\/how-nato-is-becoming-a-threat-to-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"How NATO Is Becoming a Threat to Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, Europe marches to catastrophe; often, it stumbles there.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A young boy looks down the sights of a gun on a Stryker vehicle during the ”Dragoon Ride” military exercise in Kupiskis some 160 kms (100 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Sunday, June 12, 2016. PAimages\/Mindaugas Kulbis. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

27 Jan 2017 – <\/em>\u201cIs Russia preparing for war?\u201d<\/a> read the headline of an International Business Times article on January 12. The story was about the movement of 4000 US troops, along with 87 American tanks and 144 armoured vehicles, into Poland.<\/p>\n

BBC News ran a similar story the previous week, headlined<\/a> \u201cUS tanks arrive in Germany to help NATO defences.\u201d It was about \u201cthe largest shipment of US brigades since the fall of the Soviet Union\u201d arriving in Northern Germany, ready to move east.<\/p>\n

A welcome ceremony<\/a> was led by Poland\u2019s Prime Minister, while the Deputy Commander of U.S. Land Forces in Europe labelled the troop build-up a \u201cconcrete sign of the continued U.S. commitment to the defence of Poland and the NATO alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The troops will be stationed at a number of Polish military bases over the next nine months, and also carry out training exercises in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. A Kremlin spokesman, predictably, characterised<\/a> this as \u201ca threat to us\u201d adding that \u201cthis is a third nation that is increasing its military presence near our borders in Europe, and it\u2019s not even a European nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Enhanced security”<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reasons for jitters in Eastern European and Baltic countries are well-known, stemming mainly from Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, as well as the new US president\u2019s willingness to question the purpose and funding of NATO. Russian military exercises and reinforcements<\/a> add to the anxiety.<\/p>\n

The Alliance, however, has not hesitated to engage in what the foreign policy think-tanks like to call \u201cshows of resolve\u201d, \u201cgreater allied cooperation,\u201d<\/a> or \u201cenhanced security.\u201d<\/a> In 2016 alone, NATO and its partners planned around 150 different military exercises<\/a>, many of which were obviously aimed at Russia. Here is an incomplete list from NATO\u2019s own record<\/a>:<\/p>\n