Western allies are preparing to put four additional battalions โ a force of about 4,000 troops โ in Poland and the Baltic countries as part of an effort by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to "reinforce its border with Russia".
Reports suggest that the US is likely to provide two battalions, while Germany and Britain would likely provide a battalion each.
Commenting on the reason behind the decision, Karl-Heinz Kamp, the Academic Director of the German Federal Academy for Security Policy (BAKS) has compared it to children arguing in a playground with each claiming the other one "started it".
Comment: 'Children arguing in a playground'? There is a much more accurate analogy for Russia standing up to NATO's global aggression' - it's Russia stomping the Nazis in World War II.
In his phone interview with German radio station Deutschlandfunk Kamp explained that Russia "started it" when it "indeed said that, for example, could take the Baltic states in three weeks."
The German expert however did not mention that it was the report of the American think tank RAND Corporation, and it made a direr conclusion: if Russian tanks and troops rolled into the Baltics tomorrow, outgunned and outnumbered NATO forces would be overrun in less than three days, not three weeks.
Karl-Heinz Kamp said that the proposed move is a "deterrent measure", but is quite insignificant as the Alliance has "neither the money, nor the means, nor the people" for "more intense measures".
The decision has already caused a lot of criticism in his home country.
A recent poll of Bertelsmann Foundation, the largest private operating non-profit foundation in Germany, found that more than half of German citizens โ 57% โ believe their country should not send troops to protect the Baltic countries and Poland against an "attack from Russia".
About half of Germans (49%) oppose setting up NATO bases in eastern members of the alliance to "deter Russia", while 40% said they would support such a move.
Gregor Gysi, a prominent far-left lawmaker, slammed the German government, saying that the move would send the wrong message on the eve of the 75th anniversary in June of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union.
Incidentally, in history it's this way: it's not Russia invading Germany, but Germany invading Russia, Gysi said in a statement on his Facebook page.
"To send troops to the Russian border now is to forget history and to escalate," he added.
When ever I see or hear something out of the RAND Corporation, I cringe at the thought that millions of people around the world are 'taken in' by this seemingly reputable 'think tank'.
May it and its cadre of lying fools burn to the ground and never rise again.