Trump’s Troop Removal Threats Could Fuel Europe’s Delusional Mobilization Against Russia: Here’s Why
Soldiers from different NATO countries attend a military exercise ‘Iron Sword 2014’, at the Gaiziunu Training Range in Pabrade some 60km.(38 miles) north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014
The Pentagon’s ongoing Global Force Posture Review could lead to the redeployment of up to 20,000 US troops deployed to Europe in 2022 to other theaters, an analyst from the German Council on Foreign Relations has said. Sputnik reached out to a leading European geopolitics and defense analyst for his reaction.A major reduction of US troop numbers in Europe would “alarm European politicians” and “increase their willingness to prolong the fighting in Ukraine,” Swedish Armed Forces vet and ex-Sweden Democrats chief of staff Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik.According to Valtersson, many European politicians are under the delusional impression “that Russia will invade country after country in Europe” if given the chance, and that it’s therefore “good to keep Russian forces occupied in Ukraine for as long as possible.”Deeply aware of their dependence on the US for going on 80 years now, “European belligerence toward Russia and anti-Russian attitudes are based on European weakness and fear of Russian military capability,” according to the observer.
“A better way to handle this situation would of course be to cooperate and build good relations with Russia,” Valtersson says, but that seems highly unlikely in the present circumstances.
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Planned Provocation?
The new reporting on US plans to pull tens of thousands of troops from Europe came just hours after the US and the EU announced a major new trade deal, including an EU commitment “to purchase significant amounts of US military equipment.”Coupled with Trump’s pressure on European NATO members to ramp up defense spending to 5% of GDP, the reported pullback plans also follow his announcement in mid-July that the US and Europe “made a deal” to send US weapons paid for by the Europeans to Ukraine.
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