http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-43692020091104?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Central Europe needs NATO forces - Polish minister
Thu Nov 5, 2009 3:52am IST

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Central Europe needs "strategic reassurance" from Washington and NATO forces should be placed in the region to underscore its value to the alliance, Poland's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said a visit last month to Poland and the Czech Republic by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, to ease concerns about Washington's revised missile defense plans, had been welcome, but military capabilities would be more convincing than words.

"If you can still afford it, we need some strategic reassurance," Sikorski said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

President Barack Obama recently decided to scrap plans for Poland and the Czech Republic to host elements of an ambitious missile shield against possible long-range attack from Iran.

Polish officials have said the country would take part in the revised missile defense system, which envisages deployment of sea-based interceptors first and then land-based systems. It would host SM-3 interceptors targeting short and medium-range missiles.

However, there are just six U.S. soldiers in Poland right now, Sikorski noted, while Russia and Belarus recently staged a military exercise involving hundreds of tanks close to Poland.

"If you had on the one hand 900 tanks, and on the other six troops, would you be convinced?" he asked.

When Poland joined NATO 10 years ago, Russia was assuaged with a promise that no substantial NATO forces would be sent to the region, Sikorsky said.

"But nobody imagined at this time that no forces would be put in whatsoever. And so this is I think the job that is going to need to be done."

Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Philip Gordon said at the same forum the United States considered Central and Eastern Europe "a core part of our alliance," but that reassuring the region was not simply, or even mainly, a military question.

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Should the European Union buffer up troops in Eastern Europe?

Can the European Union even do that?

Can the European Union even do that?
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The UK has a lot of soldiers stationed in Germany*. I'm sure they can be partly stationed somewhere more eastwards.

*: "Approximately 56,000 people are associated with British Forces Germany, with only about 23,000 in the army, itself, and about 2,200 civilians posted in Germany."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_army_in_germany



When I was young I used to pray for a bike, then I realized that God doesn't work that way, so I stole a bike and prayed for forgiveness.

I think the US needs to make Europe stand on its own two feet. Since WW2, they have pretty much relied on US for their security, UK exception. Maybe they should stop spending so much money on social welfare programs and lazy immigrants, and beef up their military a bit more. Just a thought.

This is just paranoid Polish government again, the only thing Europe has to fear is itself. They are using Russia to scare their population to death when Russia could care less about them. UK is also one of those who fear the big bad bear, not that even really matters.

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Russia is far more paranoid.

Siege of Tobruk - One German POW said: "I cannot understand you Australians. In Poland, France, and Belgium, once the tanks got through the soldiers took it for granted that they were beaten. But you are like demons. The tanks break through and your infantry still keep fighting." Rommel wrote of seeing "a batch of some fifty or sixty Australian prisoners ... marched off close behind usimmensely big and powerful men, who without question represented an elite formation of the British Empire, a fact that was also evident in battle."


"As a Internet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

Polish minister, Polish government? There are no such things. Radoslaw Sikorski aka Appelbaum (from his wife Anne Appelbaum)is funny puppet from "Polish" puppet government full of traitors and useful idiots. Real power belong to Jewish-masonry shadow government in Poland. Poland is in fact under Jewish occupation from 1945 up till now with small intervals of 1968-1976 and few months of 1992.
Former Jewish communists are now Jewish bankers etc. and nothing really changed. Poland is Jewry colony, you know, first is Israel, second is USrael, next is Polsrael.

All in Poland is reversed. Russia is artificialy made "threat" for Poland, when in reality is no threat. Russia have no territorial claims to Poland when Germany, Ukraine and Lithuania has such a claims (according to German constitution, Germany still had borders from 1937).
Russia and Belarus are Polish natural allies against possible fascist Ukraine and Lithuania and neo-nazi Germany. But Polish puppet governments support Lithuania and Ukrainian nationalists against Russia. It is tragicomedy...

The Multinational Corps Northeast already exists for 10 years now ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_Corps_Northeast




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A German Soldier doesnt die, he goes to hell and regroups !

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-11/06/content_12401201.htm

Russia astonished by Poland's U.S.-NATO statement
www.chinaview.cn 2009-11-06 18:19:16 Print

MOSCOW, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said late Thursday that he was very surprised by his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski's reported statement that the U.S. should deploy troops in Central Europe.

"Before elaborating on this statement I would like to make sure that he actually said that and if he did, I would be deeply astonished," news agencies quoted Lavrov as telling reporters.

"I know Radoslaw Sikorski. He always gives me an impression of a man who has experience and understands the situation with regard to what is happening in Europe," said the Russian top diplomat.

"If he did say this then I'm astounded because he and I discussed in tiny detail the problems that should be resolved in the context of European security and the objectives that Russia pursues with its initiative on a new treaty on European security, as well as with its position on the antiballistic missile system," he added.

When visiting Washington, Sikorski was reported to have urged the United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to deploy troops in Central Europe, as Poland needed "some strategic reassurance."

The Obama administration announced in September that Washington would abandon a Bush-era missile defense program while initiating a "phased, adaptive approach" in Eastern Europe.

Based on the new program, the United States might deploy SM-3 tactical anti-ballistic missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic as early as 2015. Poland said it was ready to join the revised plan.

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The UK has a lot of soldiers stationed in Germany*. I'm sure they can be partly stationed somewhere more eastwards.

What benefit is this to the UK? I'd not give the life of even one British soldier to defend Poland. If the Central European countries want to keep Russia out they can pay for it themselves. Perhaps we could send one of Europes static armies to the job, like Germany perhaps, they'd be excellent at manning bases and drinking beer between the hours of 9 and 5.


"He lives in a world where concept is reality..."

Russia is paranoid about muslim and Chinese immigrants. There is no threat from the West and we know it. The Russian army today is being built to fight Chechnya sized wars, and not to invade Poland. Why would we even want to invade a country with no oil anyway? If there is a confrontation with the West it will be over oil fields in the arctic where the Poles have no say.

Can you even think of a fact pattern that will lead to Russia firing on Poland? It makes no sense. There is nothing in eastern europe that Russia couldnt just buy with money anyway.