Thursday, April 24, 2014

NATO Can't Stop Russia Ukraine Incursion

At the New York Times, "Eastern Europe Frets About NATO’s Ability to Curb Russia":

OVER CONSTANTA, Romania — High over the Romanian border, a sophisticated NATO surveillance plane kept a close watch on Russian movements below. Its radar screens came alive with a cat-and-mouse game between a Russian surveillance jet buzzing an American guided missile destroyer in the Black Sea and a squadron of NATO fighter jets that chased it away.

It was a scene reminiscent of the Cold War, and NATO’s mission was meant to reassure allies that are feeling newly vulnerable to Russian threats after Moscow’s muscular intervention in neighboring Ukraine.

But it provided little comfort to NATO’s Eastern European members, which are growing increasingly nervous about Russia’s moves and the alliance’s ability, or even willingness, to counter them.

Today’s NATO, hollowed out by years of European military cuts and deployed mostly to help fight far-off battles in places like Afghanistan and Libya, is no longer as prepared to counter a newly assertive Kremlin, its own leaders acknowledge...
Yeah, we sent a few hundred troops to Poland, which no doubt has the Kremlin quaking.

But keep reading.

PREVIOUSLY: "Ukraine's Loss of Crimea Has NATO Examining Its Core Mission."

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