The news that the USA is deploying 5,000 troops to Poland is most welcome at this time of heightened security in the European countries bordering Russia.
After returning from an operational tour in Bosnia in 1995, I was drawn into the largest Partnership for Peace (PfP) exercise in Poland and Germany. Our deployment to Krakow pre-dated the British armoured battlegroup exercises that resulted from its success and led to the first three Warsaw Pact nations joining NATO in March 1999 (Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic). PfP was an initiative of the Clinton Administration to work together for the best future of Europe. Not only was it highly successful in helping Eastern European countries become democracies, but it also continues to this day with 18 “Partner Members”, including Ukraine.
Subsequently, Poland was a great support to the USA in Iraq. I had a very strong team led by a Polish colonel with a company of mechanised soldiers under command in Baghdad, so I am not surprised that the Washington is honouring their debt to Warsaw with the latest news of this deployment. It will certainly help in deterring Russia from invading the Baltic countries in the immediate future.
Rupert Wieloch 