The US is building up its weapons arsenal on Russia’s border. Confirmed by US military sources, “for the first time since the end of World War II, U.S. Army soldiers are making regular rotations into Poland”, to train Polish forces to use US made Patriot missiles. (Stars and Stripes, 23 July 2010)
Forty miles from the Russian border, a small group of U.S. Army Europe soldiers is instructing the Polish military about the missiles, which are designed to counter tactical ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and advanced aircraft.
The Kaiserslautern-based 5th Battalion, 7th Air Defense Artillery troops mark the most significant presence of U.S. forces in Poland since the end of World War II, said Lt. Col. Daniel Herrigstad, a U.S. Army Europe spokesman.
“We have between 80 and 150 troops going there on a regular basis,” he said. “We’ve never had that number and for that long of a period.”
Based at a Polish army base in Morag, a small town in the country’s northeast, the U.S. soldiers will conduct 30 days of training with the Polish military four times a year, for the next two years, Herrigstad said. The first soldiers arrived in late May, along with six Patriot launching platforms and other battery equipment. (Stars and Stripes, 23 July 2010)
This deployment is not an isolated event. It is coordinated with US sponsored war games and military stockpiling in major regions of the world, including the Middle East and Central Asia, the Caucasus, The Korean Peninsula and the South
We are at a dangerous crossroads in World history. The US and its allies are deploying their military might simultaneously in several regions of the World, not only threatening Iran, Syria and North Korea but it is also targeting China and Russia.
The deployment in Poland is described as a “a mission that stems from a 2008 defense agreement between the United States and Poland. The intent of the training, U.S. military officials say, is to help Poland, a staunch U.S. ally and North Atlantic Treaty Organization member, improve its air defense capabilities.”
Military exercises are occurring within 60 km of Russia’s naval base in Kalingrad, in what is visibly an act of provocation. Parallel war games are occurring within a short distance of North Korea’s coastline, with the deployment of nuclear powered aircraft carrier USS George Washington.
US military sources describe the Patriot missile deployment in Poland as defensive rather than offensive: “It would not be something Russia could claim could threaten them. The Poles are looking for approval and rewards for their very close devotion to American forces and U.S. defense policy. I don’t see any particular use (for the Patriots) unless it’s some sort of anti-Iranian defense.”
