42 Replies to “A Permanent U.S. Military Base in Poland?”

  2. “absolutely no danger to Poland from Russia…”?
    Except for the fact that Imperial Russian conquered Poland in the 1830s, broke away in 1918 during the Russian Revolution, was split up by Hitler and Stalin in 1939 (the Russians invaded two weeks after the Germans and the invading armies marched together in a joint victory parade) and then was forcefully enclosed in the iron curtain for over four decades. Nothing to fear there, nosirree.

  4. Great for Poland bad for American taxpayers/citizens. Why don’t you pay for it?

  5. Moving a base from Germany to Poland (where cost of living is lower) is hardly a net loss to US taxpayers. But let me guess, the costs are just a convenient excuse for you, right?

  6. Or poland can just build an army of its own….. A lot of us should and will soon have to try that instead of relying on a bankrupt America.

  8. Well, “Steve”, old buddy old pal, so you say big bad Poland, racist sexist homophobes that they are, are ‘evily’ whipping up the Ukraine against poor old struggling Russia and their charismatic, loveable leader Vlad Putin. Yeah… but not too hard to understand when you take into account the liquidation of some 10 Million + ‘evil’ Ukrainian Republicans…cross that out, I mean Kulaks, and that Russian military exercise in Poland’s Katyn forest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_Massacre

  9. Utterly clueless academic commentary. Poland and Ukraine have both been stamped flat under the Russian boot within the living memory of a lot people. Besides, does this commentator actually believe that Obama would help any ally?

  10. What is the crap in the video about “taking Ukraine from Russia”? Does Steve Whoever not know that Ukraine is an independent nation that just had a piece of its own territory annexed by Russia and that there is a Russian supported insurgency trying to annex another piece? Does this doofus not read newspapers?
    It’s much easier to believe that Poland just wants to stay free of Russia rather than it is to think that the Poles want to reconstruct some 16th century empire.
    If we insist on deploying a military, it would make more sense to use it to help keep Russia out of Eastern Europe, for which we might be thanked, than wasting lives on a bunch of goat-bothering religious nutbags who will always hate us.

  11. Or better yet the US could just NOT have a base in either Germany or Poland! They can build their own army and we can save a bunch of money. You’re free to join this army btw.
    Doesn’t matter what you think, because Americans don’t want any more of these adventures and they don’t have to money to finance them, so I get my way by default.

  12. Just Truth and Jayincaig – should you bother to do any basic research, you will find the Poles have an army. Likewise a navy and an airforce. However, the state of their armed forces was not great when they were finally released from Soviet control, and they are a small country. The Slovaks are in a similar situation. The reputation of the Poles as fighters, however, is really good – think the Polish squadrons during the Battle of Britain. America is fortunate that they are willing to host a US military establishment.

  13. However, the state of their armed forces was not great when they were finally released from Soviet control, and they are a small country.
    And Israel is smaller and they are surrounded and threatened constantly. So what your point?

  14. To add to what Frances said, Poland has been a staunch and reliable ally in Afghanistan and Iraq. Germany not so much.
    Moreover, following the fall of Iron Curtain, Eastern European countries had to accept limitations on the size of their armed forces. This was so, to finally get Siberian occupiers off their lands. So let’s recap: First Eastern Europe is sold to Siberians at Yalta, then come four and a half decades of servitude to Kremlin and communist devastation of their economies. Then come international agreements and now they can go and pound sand because you have changed your mind? You might have trouble finding allies in the future once you wake up in a world when your dominance is no more.
    “Doesn’t matter what you think, ”
    Right back at ya. And please clarify whether (i) you belong to the moronic “blame America and their imperialism first” moronic contingent or (ii) are a Kremlin’s parrot? Note: options (i) and (ii) are not mutually exclusive.

  15. Israel would have collapsed without US support. Israel is surrounded by incompetent idiots who would have fu**** up a wet dream if given half a chance.

  16. you’re rite, the yanks should stay out just like in WW2 and save a lot of money, HO wait, they were attacked by opportunists in WW2 and spent a sh!t load of money. Prevention is always cheaper, in blood and money, than fixing after the fact. Go read some history!

  18. Who will bankroll America to build another base anywhere? America does not have the money to do it without borrowing from someone. To whose best interest is it to have a strong American presence in eastern Europe?
    Maybe more money from the Chinese like they did for Iraq.

  19. Oh so now we are concerned with the cost of building a base in Poland? Because really US is not spending money on crap elsewhere? Never fear your suddenly fiscally responsible hart. Plenty of bases in Poland that could be adopted with minimal expense. Infrastructure in Poland is pretty reasonable and life is much cheaper than in Germany.

  20. The US should close the bases in Germany and move them to Poland. Russia has already negated the 1997 NATO/Russia agreement with the takeover of Crimea.
    As well, the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, and the other eastern European countries should build up and modernize their military and form a mutually defensive assistance agreement, as they can forget about the US, especially under Red Line Obama helping any of them. The US at this is hard pressed to defeat a bunch of camel jockeys.

  21. Steve Cohen from NYU is an apparent useful idiot. Russia no threat to Poland? Maybe in 17 century, but throughout 18th, 19th, 20th and now 21st there were numerous invasions, occupations, assassinations (like Polish president Boleslaw Bierut in 1952 for example), genocides, political coercing, the list is endless…
    Mister Cohen apparently needs a small history refreshment course. At his level of “expertise” he could probably start from Wikipedia. Unless of course he is one of those “you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet” guys, also known as useful idiots, which I strongly suspect.
    Tom B.

  23. America does not collect enough taxes and other revenue to cover it’s expenditures. America borrows money to run it’s government.
    It’s in China’s best interest for the US to have bases in Poland, they’ll give America the money to do it, and of course there will be ‘strings attached’. America’s mercs are the best in the world.

  24. Harkov – Israel independent from beginning; Poles and Slovaks seriously under Russian control for many years. Flying to Slovakia some years ago, caught odd movie on Czech Airlines. Began with “Downtown” by Petula Clark as graduates celebrated; segued into 1968 insurrection in Prague and Russian response. Even when we were there, in the days of freedom, the Russian potential presence was an issue.

  25. Tom, I agree. This Steve Cohen lost me when he said Russia is no threat to Poland. A resurgent Russia is a threat to all its neighbours, especially so if there might be natural resource extraction that could be in competition to its stranglehold on providing gas and oil to Europe, and Poland has frackable gas as does western Ukraine. The Baltic states restrict Russia’s freedom of the Baltic Sea. Crimea was a potential thorn in Russia’s underbelly.

  26. False Dichotomy: every dishonest neocon’s best friend!
    I don’t care about any of that nonsense you preceded with. It’s your historical guilt trip; you deal with it without any taxpayer money.
    Israel would have collapsed without US support.
    Highly questionable statement. Israel survived through the ’67 war without American aid. No doubt they no longer need it.
    you’re rite, the yanks should stay out just like in WW2 and save a lot of money, HO wait, they were attacked by opportunists in WW2 and spent a sh!t load of money.
    It’s a good thing the US did stay out. They were in no condition to go ‘preventing’ anything. BTW it’s not quite accurate to say that they stayed out of WW2 FDR was illegally inserting American into that war prior to Pearl Harbour. There is a good argument to be made that America should have stayed almost completely out of the European theater.
    Prevention is always cheaper, in blood and money, than fixing after the fact.
    Cheaper still is not getting into pointless unnecessary commitments in the name of unverifiable ‘preventions’ ie nation-builing in Iraq or spending money on Polish bases for eternity. Conveniently, the neoconservative’s preferred ‘preventative’ method requires an alternative reality prove that it was unnecessary. Being a neocon means never having to say sorry. It also means inappropriately comparing every to WW2 no matter the context.

  27. Yes, Israel would have collapsed without US support. They are also a bulwark. See the similarities?

  28. Clearly Russia is provoking the US by putting their country so close to the US military bases.

  29. Yes, Kevin, Putin is justified in his reaction NATO’s shield rattling.

  30. Oh great another principled isolationist, oh so concerned with US fiscal state, who just happens to prescribe the exact policy that Pootin would prescribe himself. Nope sorry will not play your silly game.
    “Highly questionable statement. Israel survived through the ’67 war without American aid.”
    Operation Nickel Grass, rings a bell? Then look at support Israel received since. Before it was European support that greatly help them stay afloat. And they need outside support now and will need it again. But we all know which side are you on so why bother?

  31. The US should put a large Army presence in Poland, if only to pre-position them for the next collapse of Russia, when they request US peacekeepers.

  32. Oh great another principled isolationist, oh so concerned with US fiscal state, who just happens to prescribe the exact policy that Pootin would prescribe himself. Nope sorry will not play your silly game.
    There’s no ‘game’ just like there’s no argument here, just whining and ad hom on your part. With that, I win.
    Nickel Grass happened in 1973, so my point still stands. It’s a rout; I have totally dominated this thread.

  33. Congratulations give yourself a gold star. Or rather a red star seems more appropriate.
    What argument do you want? You seriously want me to argue why isolationism is a religion of Paulbots and useful idiots? That every thug du jeur prays for American isolationism? Nope, your tired, endlessly recycled Pravda inspired drivel ain’t worth a serious argument
    Israel would not have survived without Nickel Grass. Hence they would not have survived without US support. So much for your theory. And before the era of American help Brits and French were instrumental as Israel’s allies.

  34. I’d take any argument as a start. Beats labelling everyone who doesn’t share your TEAM AMERICA WORLD POLICE power-fetish as ‘isolationist’.

  36. Like Rome left England, so to will America leave Poland when civil war comes to the USA.
    Its why Canada should have its ow nuclear deterrent.
    Under Obama, America has dumped its allies than receded into its shell.
    The World become more lawless by the month.

  37. JBS makes an appearance on SDA. Woo-hoo! Great show. Listen almost every night.

  39. In much the same way that on the D-Day celebrations Angela Merkel thanked the Allied forces for freeing the German people, it logically follows that the Russian people were the biggest victims of the Soviet Union.
    The Soviet Union has not existed for 33 years now.
    It’s not Putin’s fault that a series of Ukrainian governments are corrupt and unable to pay their bills. While filling their pockets, they neglected the eastern regions of their own country. When the people finally got pissed off, then they spend money on the region by sending in the military.
    If any of you did not pay you gas bill, what would your natural gas provided do?
    Amazingly, the Ukrainian government still believes it’s entitled to pay less than world price for its natural gas.
    How soon will the taps be turned off? Ask your natural gas provider for a discount and see how long it takes to turn off the taps.

  40. Yes well of course all those places need to be protected from the Siberian Horde. Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine were not and now they are infested with Siberian barbarians. Let Siberians marinate in their own juices, minimize them leaking outside of their borders and polluting their neighbours and in a few decades, a third will drink themselves to death and a third will be locked in a life or death struggle with the mooselimb third. Happy times. Just don’t let them spill now. Go NATO! Wolfowitz for Nobel peace price!

  41. Yeah well, the main thing I derived from reading Tsun Tsu’s “The Art of War” is the principle of always providing your enemy a way out.
    Troops into a Polish base is not too encroaching. It does make Ukraine a no go buffer zone…..does not concede Ukraine to Russia…Russia doesn’t seek a border with western troops anymore than Moa’s China could tolerate the UN army on the south bank of the Yalu River…
    Providing body armour and night vision googles is non-lethal…hence not threatening….providing MREs is just petty.
    As somebody pointed out elsewhere..Russia lacks the military strength/depth to overtly invade Ukraine….
    Putin risked much by annexing Crimea…because he considered the Russian Black Sea Fleet too important to lose. The Russian Black Sea Fleet is roughly the size of a USN battle group and could probably be defeated by the Italians.

  42. This guy is just stupid.
    Russia is a threat to its nabours what happened in Georgia?. Oh that’s right they were not in Nato.You really think those tiny Baltic country’s would still be there, if it were not for Nato?. Why is it the most educated out there, are also the ones, who are so dumb?.

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