The officer was referring to the fact that the announcement came on Sept. 17, the 70th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland. A gesture to Russia on this date — a “brave” decision said Vladimir Putin — was the rough equivalent for the Poles of their announcing concessions to a U.S. foe on 9/11…
Even the Polish generals at the conclave of NATO’s military committee accepted some of the strategic arguments for the switch, but their reaction was governed by enduring Soviet trauma: Poles — like Lithuanians, Estonians and Latvians — want the United States as visible on their soil as possible to deter Russian prowling.
That feeling is not just a Cold War hangover. The Russian incursion into Georgia last year caused central European shivers. Moscow succeeded in relegating the Georgian and Ukrainian bids for NATO membership to a place somewhere backward of the back burner.
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