Tuesday 11:00 AM Nurse Jane at Joint Base Andrews, at 4:430 PM Offiice Depot, Annapolis, Maryland
Today is Davos, Switzerland day, time is 0824 AM
Good Morning CDR (not LCDR anymore)!
Sir, in about 1990 (?), at your Promotion Board, you didn’t have a Navy NIS Commander give “False” statements about himself or me… the LCDR being considered for promotion, did you?
Boards meet, discuss, at least (4) times. They listen to written reports read aloud.
At that time I was a Clinical Registered Nurse in Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital. My Commanding Officer at DEFATT, Captain Y., asked me, “Do you want me to escalate this?” “No”, I replied. The Post Master General of the United Stated called that Tennessee based Naval Commander. “Stand down”, he was told. Thankfully, he complied.
At Joint Base Andrews, about 11;00 AM, Tuesday 20 January, I was assisted by the most gracious Air Force Officers in “Acquisitions”. I was in the “Jones Building” the Headquarters… the big glass building.
My mind flew to you CDR Salamander… how do we, the USN, get such competent “Acquisition Officers” for the ships, boats and ordinance you and our shipmates believe we need?
From Joint Base Andrews, I drove with my own physical difficulties, to Anne Arundel Community College. I had to “Print” at least 60 pages for my LSG 216 Criminal Evidence & Procedure course “Announcements” posted by my Professor, KJ, Esquire. All must be read and understood “before” I take my “Compliance Survey” due 25 January 2026.
I wanted ”Page Protectors”. Wonderful Stephen from Office Depot said, “We have none and won’t be getting anymore from China!” Stephen said, “Try Staples”.
CDR Salamander entire East Coast, Maryland to South Carolina is on “Alert” for significant snow and or freezing rain coming this Saturday and lasting through Sunday night into Monday.
Smile CDR Salamander, I’m working a plan to promote my Chesapeake Bay Security efforts with the USCG JAG and our VA Chief in Annapolis, MD.
I’m so grateful for our shipmates who wrote their comments here. So educated and experienced are our shipmates! I must nod my head in gratitude! God Bless America! My son just texted, “Back in the U.S.”! Please excuse me now, I wish to reach out to my only child, “Welcome home Pilot”! mama
CDR Sal, thanks for writing about a genuine ray of sunshine from Europe. People (and nations, and...organizations) act in their own interests, treaty alliances aside. Unelected officials in the EU and WEF view it as in their interests to maintain the status quo and live in the past (reliving anti-American childhood dreams I think you said). Poland, like Israel, is living every day with a real threat, has the object lesson of UKR before them, and recognizes it IS IN THEIR INTEREST to respond as they are doing. They are the new "Fulda Gap" of Russian aggression and are willing to work with the U.S. (relatively without fanfare, I must say, which is wise) to prepare for war and thus hopefully avoid it. Unlike the unelected EU bureaucrats who are willing to defend their phony baloney jobs to the last drop of UKR and, should things go badly, Polish, and likely U.S. serviceman's blood. Good for now, but getting the EU (read NATO) to "get real" is the root cause problem here.
The only real threat Poland is living under is constantly siding with exactly wrong guys and then screaming about being "betrayed!" when forced to face the consequences. Russia have zero interest in Poland; there aren't even any significant Russian-speaking minority there. Please stop blaming Russia for your own elites constant opportunism.
You know, I have. And I'm a bit annoyed when Poland started to present itself as "historically oppressed by Russia", while actually it was a long struggle between two emerging empires - Polad-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Moscow Tsardom/Russian Empire - for Eastern European dominance. Russia managed to get the upper hand in the end; that's all. Not the "innocent victim fighting against terrible oppressors"; merely two predators clashing over who would be the top guy around.
You mean Russia wiping the sovereign state of Poland off the map (via three partitions (1772, 1793, 1795; of which Russia was arguably the leading protagonist)) and ultimate incorporation of Russian-held Polish lands into the Russian Empire along with virulent Russification, the 1939 Russian/Soviet invasion of Poland (merely a few days behind the Germans), and then the forced imposition of Russian/Soviet communism in the closing days of WWII are not sufficient grounds for feeling "oppressed"? By all means, stay "annoyed."
Oh please! "Sovereign state of Poland", i.e. Rzeczpospolita, tried several times to wipe Russia from the map. In early 1600s they almost sucseeded, with their prince taking control over Moscow (till Second Militia kicked him out). Again: it was imperial struggle which took literally centuried. One empire got the upper hand.
Patrition of Poland was mostly Prussian idea; Russia initially was against it, and only agreed because otherwise Poland would be divided between Prussia and Austria, and Russia would get nothing of it. Not that Russia was against it due to some kind of laughable noble reasons, of course; Empress Ekaterina II just thought that unified Poland would suit her interests more.
"Virulent Russification" started only after the second Polish rebellion in 1860s. Before that, Poland have significantly more autonomy in its internal operations. And before first Polish rebellion in 1830, Poland was essentially an autonomous state, with its own constitution, parliament and army; Russian Emperor was a king of Poland, but that was basically all.
About the 1939 invasion... let's recall who was the main voice behind Munich betrayal of 1938, openly threatening USSR with war, if USSR would attempt to help Czechoslovakia? Who essentially sided with Germany against Czech for a bit of Chzechoslovakian land? Surprise; not USSR)
About the forced imposition of Communism - well, here I agree, it wasn't very polite. But Poland was rather handsomely compensated for that with former German territories of Eastern Prussia (from which they threw out all Germans immediately), so even that wasn't all bad.
After literally the worst war in the history of your nation - would you be willing to rely in your security on the neighbor, that literally sabotaged all your effort to prevent this war?
The Soviets and Nazis agreed to divide up Poland in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Nazis invaded Poland, then Stalin ordered a Soviet invasion, and THEN they drew new borders as part of the German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty, and... I mean, none of what you're saying has any connection to reality here. Both sides wanted Poland as their own, and Putin has made it clear on several occasions that he thinks there isn't enough Russia in his Russia even today.
Correct...Poland just cannot seem to keep repeating the mistake they made last time.
The loss of thousands of polish "volunteers" in the UKranian proxy war NATO is conducting is just a foretaste. There will be no end to this war except that decided by the Victor's...Russia. All this infrastructure is just one more thing to make rubble if NATO starts shooting. America has no strategic resources to conduct extended attrition warfare and no Air Defense of any value. No polish infrastructure is defensible at this point...
The geographic logic here is solid. Wrocław being 375nm closer to the eastern flank than Ramstein changes response times significantly in any contingency. Poland's willingness to spend over 4% GDP on defense while building dual-use civilian infrastructure shows they get it. The whole "combined training and logistics bases" concept feels alot more sustainable longterm than trying to maintain Cold War era garrison postures. Flexibility matters when the threat landscape keeps shifting.
375 nm looks very long on a map of Europe. For us Americans, that's is about 100 nm shorter that the distance from Chicago to Memphis. Ahh! Blessed geography.
I strongly disagree. We should have turned the keys to NATO over to the EU in 1992 (and it only took me until 1995 to figure that out) and told them not to drive drunk or get their girlfriend pregnant in the backseat, but otherwise have a good time, and returned to tending our own fields. The purpose of NATO was to oppose the Soviet Union. Mission bloody well Accomplished! We won! Stop fighting that war!
Keep our military strong, yeah, but do it smartly, and don't try to police the rest of the world. It's not really our job. Let them either take care of themselves or not.
Born in '76, grew up in the 80's and 90's, **really enjoyed** the bits of my life where there wasn't a looming threat of nuclear annihilation. Not excited about that being a thing again. If the EU doesn't want to pay enough to defend themselves, who cares? Sucks for them, but I'm tired of being taxed for it so they can sneer at me about how much better their healthcare is (which, well, it's not really) because their governments are spending their money on *that* instead of defense. Honestly, I don't even care about the healthcare thing, I just want to not be taxed to defend the rest of the planet. Let the rest of the planet buy its own guns. Seriously, "a government of limited powers". That's what we're supposed to have, and "take care of everything around the planet" wasn't on the list, last time I looked.
---
And on that note, off to work. Man, my inbox should be exciting this afternoon! 🤣🤣🤣
Historical advice: don't rely on Poland too much. Polish elites are, as they often were, opportunistic to the bone. They are going full steam ahead to whatever close goal they could grab, long-time strategy be damned.
I'd much rather have Poles on my side than virtually any other European. They've lived (and suffered) in a really bad neighborhood for centuries (which certainly explains their antipathy for Russia, among other occupiers), but, unlike so many others, they fight and fight well. (Кстати, вы русский?)
Not that anyone else around was in much better conditions. Europe for centuries was a really bad neighborhood, with multiple nations, big and small, clashing constantly. And while I admire the Polish peoples best qualities, I don't like their tendency to blame Russia for everything bad that ever happened to Poland.
Наполовину - русский, наполовину - украинец, живу в Москве.
Based on what I've heard from talking to Poles in Poland (I've been there AND we have an office there with people in it I've talked to) Germany and Austria get plenty of the blame as well.
The Poles are currently pursuing reparations from Germany (which included Austria in the WW2 space). Going nowhere that I can detect. Germans really wrecked the place, far more than the Soviets did. By that stage of the war, Soviet advances were pretty fast until logistics intervened. Less time spent fighting over a patch of ground=less damage. Long fight between Poles and Germans in Warsaw basically demolished it. Soviets get criticized for sitting there on the other side of the river but it was the Germans who did the damage.
I am new to this substack, I hadn't realized the CO is pro 'let's leave Europe', I agree completely, it's unnecessary expense. Better to spend that money on naval logistics so you can project power anywhere.
It must be quite a trip to do the research and write up analysis with context, and then see some of the absolutely loony things people post in the comments.
Wow, the regional languages are...difficult to say the least. I could listen and repeat that video a hundred times and STILL fail. I'll stick with RO-CLAW, so all my friends from Arkansas and Louisiana can understand...
They could take one for the (NATO) team by letting nonPoles go back to "Breslau," on the analogy of Praha/Prag/Prague. In Korea 60 years ago I bunked next to a Polish-American GI who explained he came from "Vrtswv", and it took me weeks to puzzle it out in those pre-internet days.
This old Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer noticed that maintenance facilities/hangars were missing from the list of items being built to accommodate US needs - - did I miss something?....
And when Trump moves those troops to their new base the press will scramble to scream Trump is withdrawing troops from Germany again. (While the Germans complain about the loss of jobs and renters like they did last time.)
Maybe he'll do it on a Thursday, after they're hoarse from screaming over the 478 things he's done M-W and while they're resting up for 73 more things they'll want to scream about on Friday (and through the weekend).
After I retired in 2008 from running Navy and Pentagon budgets I wrote a few op-eds for Defense News. One was titled Coalition of the Billing: US Must Nudge NATO Allies To Carry Larger Burden (Defense News, September 8, 2014, page 21. Pointing out that the EU and many allies have large economies and can support themselves, I also noted they could kick in more because they had no trouble in sustaining trade with potential enemies and minimizing their own defense. That America was borrowing money (lots from potential enemies, such as China) to pay for its own defense. But my takeaway wasn't just to increase from 2 to 5%, but that they if they valuable their liberty and freedom, it wasn't time to pay their fair share, it was time to pay whatever it cost. Nice to see it only took 12 years and a war in Ukraine to learn that...again.
Interesting dichotomy of being hip deep fighting a proxy war against Nato’s (only?) enemy while being accused of not supporting said NATO.
We should help them because they are Gods gift to the free world, unlike the “flawed” democracy that is the US.
Meanwhile Germany is in the middle of a slow motion suicide, an export based economy banning itself from building anything. Norway runs off anybody who has an inclination to do, well anything, with wealth taxes (we don’t need no billionaires, we have oil money for days). UK is self loathing itself into an Islamic police state (with nukes of course). The serious minded East is so serious they don’t have time to (checks notes) make babies. Canada just decided to stick it to the US by making a trade deal with (checks notes again) the farking CPC.. Seriously let’s stick it to America by making sure no one will ever manufacture anything here again. Mwah haha.
I can see where pres is coming from, you know what screw you a holes. Go ahead and write Greenland of America on your map.
"The last President of the United States will die defending the capital of Warsaw".
Not this president!
Tuesday 11:00 AM Nurse Jane at Joint Base Andrews, at 4:430 PM Offiice Depot, Annapolis, Maryland
Today is Davos, Switzerland day, time is 0824 AM
Good Morning CDR (not LCDR anymore)!
Sir, in about 1990 (?), at your Promotion Board, you didn’t have a Navy NIS Commander give “False” statements about himself or me… the LCDR being considered for promotion, did you?
Boards meet, discuss, at least (4) times. They listen to written reports read aloud.
At that time I was a Clinical Registered Nurse in Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital. My Commanding Officer at DEFATT, Captain Y., asked me, “Do you want me to escalate this?” “No”, I replied. The Post Master General of the United Stated called that Tennessee based Naval Commander. “Stand down”, he was told. Thankfully, he complied.
At Joint Base Andrews, about 11;00 AM, Tuesday 20 January, I was assisted by the most gracious Air Force Officers in “Acquisitions”. I was in the “Jones Building” the Headquarters… the big glass building.
My mind flew to you CDR Salamander… how do we, the USN, get such competent “Acquisition Officers” for the ships, boats and ordinance you and our shipmates believe we need?
From Joint Base Andrews, I drove with my own physical difficulties, to Anne Arundel Community College. I had to “Print” at least 60 pages for my LSG 216 Criminal Evidence & Procedure course “Announcements” posted by my Professor, KJ, Esquire. All must be read and understood “before” I take my “Compliance Survey” due 25 January 2026.
I wanted ”Page Protectors”. Wonderful Stephen from Office Depot said, “We have none and won’t be getting anymore from China!” Stephen said, “Try Staples”.
CDR Salamander entire East Coast, Maryland to South Carolina is on “Alert” for significant snow and or freezing rain coming this Saturday and lasting through Sunday night into Monday.
Smile CDR Salamander, I’m working a plan to promote my Chesapeake Bay Security efforts with the USCG JAG and our VA Chief in Annapolis, MD.
I’m so grateful for our shipmates who wrote their comments here. So educated and experienced are our shipmates! I must nod my head in gratitude! God Bless America! My son just texted, “Back in the U.S.”! Please excuse me now, I wish to reach out to my only child, “Welcome home Pilot”! mama
Very Respectfully, Nurse Jane
What?
CDR Sal, thanks for writing about a genuine ray of sunshine from Europe. People (and nations, and...organizations) act in their own interests, treaty alliances aside. Unelected officials in the EU and WEF view it as in their interests to maintain the status quo and live in the past (reliving anti-American childhood dreams I think you said). Poland, like Israel, is living every day with a real threat, has the object lesson of UKR before them, and recognizes it IS IN THEIR INTEREST to respond as they are doing. They are the new "Fulda Gap" of Russian aggression and are willing to work with the U.S. (relatively without fanfare, I must say, which is wise) to prepare for war and thus hopefully avoid it. Unlike the unelected EU bureaucrats who are willing to defend their phony baloney jobs to the last drop of UKR and, should things go badly, Polish, and likely U.S. serviceman's blood. Good for now, but getting the EU (read NATO) to "get real" is the root cause problem here.
The only real threat Poland is living under is constantly siding with exactly wrong guys and then screaming about being "betrayed!" when forced to face the consequences. Russia have zero interest in Poland; there aren't even any significant Russian-speaking minority there. Please stop blaming Russia for your own elites constant opportunism.
Of all the possible opinions available on this, this is certainly one of them, and I respect your opinion.
I don't lol. We have enough Russian bots spewing agitprop on social media as it is.
Not sure you truly have a command of Polish history (I submit you have none), but you're entitled to your own opinion.
You know, I have. And I'm a bit annoyed when Poland started to present itself as "historically oppressed by Russia", while actually it was a long struggle between two emerging empires - Polad-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Moscow Tsardom/Russian Empire - for Eastern European dominance. Russia managed to get the upper hand in the end; that's all. Not the "innocent victim fighting against terrible oppressors"; merely two predators clashing over who would be the top guy around.
You mean Russia wiping the sovereign state of Poland off the map (via three partitions (1772, 1793, 1795; of which Russia was arguably the leading protagonist)) and ultimate incorporation of Russian-held Polish lands into the Russian Empire along with virulent Russification, the 1939 Russian/Soviet invasion of Poland (merely a few days behind the Germans), and then the forced imposition of Russian/Soviet communism in the closing days of WWII are not sufficient grounds for feeling "oppressed"? By all means, stay "annoyed."
Oh please! "Sovereign state of Poland", i.e. Rzeczpospolita, tried several times to wipe Russia from the map. In early 1600s they almost sucseeded, with their prince taking control over Moscow (till Second Militia kicked him out). Again: it was imperial struggle which took literally centuried. One empire got the upper hand.
Patrition of Poland was mostly Prussian idea; Russia initially was against it, and only agreed because otherwise Poland would be divided between Prussia and Austria, and Russia would get nothing of it. Not that Russia was against it due to some kind of laughable noble reasons, of course; Empress Ekaterina II just thought that unified Poland would suit her interests more.
"Virulent Russification" started only after the second Polish rebellion in 1860s. Before that, Poland have significantly more autonomy in its internal operations. And before first Polish rebellion in 1830, Poland was essentially an autonomous state, with its own constitution, parliament and army; Russian Emperor was a king of Poland, but that was basically all.
About the 1939 invasion... let's recall who was the main voice behind Munich betrayal of 1938, openly threatening USSR with war, if USSR would attempt to help Czechoslovakia? Who essentially sided with Germany against Czech for a bit of Chzechoslovakian land? Surprise; not USSR)
About the forced imposition of Communism - well, here I agree, it wasn't very polite. But Poland was rather handsomely compensated for that with former German territories of Eastern Prussia (from which they threw out all Germans immediately), so even that wasn't all bad.
There was no such empire post-WW II and no need for Russia to occupy Poland.
After literally the worst war in the history of your nation - would you be willing to rely in your security on the neighbor, that literally sabotaged all your effort to prevent this war?
The Soviets and Nazis agreed to divide up Poland in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Nazis invaded Poland, then Stalin ordered a Soviet invasion, and THEN they drew new borders as part of the German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty, and... I mean, none of what you're saying has any connection to reality here. Both sides wanted Poland as their own, and Putin has made it clear on several occasions that he thinks there isn't enough Russia in his Russia even today.
or take the Eastern half as an ally of Hitler, at the war's start.
That is certainly an interpretation of Russia's history with Poland.
The men found in Katyn could not be reached for comment.
As well as Soviet POW's, mass-starved to death in Polish camps in 1920s.
Citation needed.
I think he is a paid influence agent.
I've seen him elsewhere, and I don't get that vibe from him. I think he's a normal Russian.
Facts not in evidence, Boris.
History would disagree with you about Russia's interest in Poland, especially with Vlad trying to get the old gang back together.
Correct...Poland just cannot seem to keep repeating the mistake they made last time.
The loss of thousands of polish "volunteers" in the UKranian proxy war NATO is conducting is just a foretaste. There will be no end to this war except that decided by the Victor's...Russia. All this infrastructure is just one more thing to make rubble if NATO starts shooting. America has no strategic resources to conduct extended attrition warfare and no Air Defense of any value. No polish infrastructure is defensible at this point...
The geographic logic here is solid. Wrocław being 375nm closer to the eastern flank than Ramstein changes response times significantly in any contingency. Poland's willingness to spend over 4% GDP on defense while building dual-use civilian infrastructure shows they get it. The whole "combined training and logistics bases" concept feels alot more sustainable longterm than trying to maintain Cold War era garrison postures. Flexibility matters when the threat landscape keeps shifting.
375 nm looks very long on a map of Europe. For us Americans, that's is about 100 nm shorter that the distance from Chicago to Memphis. Ahh! Blessed geography.
Great work
Logistics ✅
I strongly disagree. We should have turned the keys to NATO over to the EU in 1992 (and it only took me until 1995 to figure that out) and told them not to drive drunk or get their girlfriend pregnant in the backseat, but otherwise have a good time, and returned to tending our own fields. The purpose of NATO was to oppose the Soviet Union. Mission bloody well Accomplished! We won! Stop fighting that war!
Keep our military strong, yeah, but do it smartly, and don't try to police the rest of the world. It's not really our job. Let them either take care of themselves or not.
Born in '76, grew up in the 80's and 90's, **really enjoyed** the bits of my life where there wasn't a looming threat of nuclear annihilation. Not excited about that being a thing again. If the EU doesn't want to pay enough to defend themselves, who cares? Sucks for them, but I'm tired of being taxed for it so they can sneer at me about how much better their healthcare is (which, well, it's not really) because their governments are spending their money on *that* instead of defense. Honestly, I don't even care about the healthcare thing, I just want to not be taxed to defend the rest of the planet. Let the rest of the planet buy its own guns. Seriously, "a government of limited powers". That's what we're supposed to have, and "take care of everything around the planet" wasn't on the list, last time I looked.
---
And on that note, off to work. Man, my inbox should be exciting this afternoon! 🤣🤣🤣
Amen
Maybe not NATO but treaties with individual nations. Are you advocating isolationism in some form? Or just getting out of Europe?
" The purpose of NATO was to oppose the Soviet Union. Mission bloody well Accomplished! We won!"
- said my British Army in the 60s father.
Historical advice: don't rely on Poland too much. Polish elites are, as they often were, opportunistic to the bone. They are going full steam ahead to whatever close goal they could grab, long-time strategy be damned.
(Observes world history) Non-unique criticism. Got anything else?
I'd much rather have Poles on my side than virtually any other European. They've lived (and suffered) in a really bad neighborhood for centuries (which certainly explains their antipathy for Russia, among other occupiers), but, unlike so many others, they fight and fight well. (Кстати, вы русский?)
Not that anyone else around was in much better conditions. Europe for centuries was a really bad neighborhood, with multiple nations, big and small, clashing constantly. And while I admire the Polish peoples best qualities, I don't like their tendency to blame Russia for everything bad that ever happened to Poland.
Наполовину - русский, наполовину - украинец, живу в Москве.
Based on what I've heard from talking to Poles in Poland (I've been there AND we have an office there with people in it I've talked to) Germany and Austria get plenty of the blame as well.
The Poles are currently pursuing reparations from Germany (which included Austria in the WW2 space). Going nowhere that I can detect. Germans really wrecked the place, far more than the Soviets did. By that stage of the war, Soviet advances were pretty fast until logistics intervened. Less time spent fighting over a patch of ground=less damage. Long fight between Poles and Germans in Warsaw basically demolished it. Soviets get criticized for sitting there on the other side of the river but it was the Germans who did the damage.
I'll add the Czechs and Hungarians to that list, myself.
Are they building enough 4 star hotels near Wrolaw for the USAF airman's comfort?
5 star only with full housekeeping and a Starbucks on every floor...
And the golf course...don't forget the golf course!!
And stocked mini bar.
Maybe a crayon distribution site for Marines?
New or used....
New! Who wants a stale used up crayon with their MRE?
If the EU gets their way, those hotels will be filled with Syrians.
I would have loved to have been stationed in Poland before I retired from the Army. Oh, well....
I am new to this substack, I hadn't realized the CO is pro 'let's leave Europe', I agree completely, it's unnecessary expense. Better to spend that money on naval logistics so you can project power anywhere.
I am not in the “leave Europe” camp. FFS. Read what I write.
I meant you wanted to lessen the footprint, is that closer to what you wrote?
It must be quite a trip to do the research and write up analysis with context, and then see some of the absolutely loony things people post in the comments.
Hey I resemble that observation LOL
NATO is a trade organization and buying club for the MIC. I'm not complaining. Just observing. NATO is good for my retirement portfolio.
In case anyone is wondering:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDQCMNZMSBE&pp=ygUVd3JvY2xhdyBwcm9udW5jaWF0aW9u
Wow, the regional languages are...difficult to say the least. I could listen and repeat that video a hundred times and STILL fail. I'll stick with RO-CLAW, so all my friends from Arkansas and Louisiana can understand...
They could take one for the (NATO) team by letting nonPoles go back to "Breslau," on the analogy of Praha/Prag/Prague. In Korea 60 years ago I bunked next to a Polish-American GI who explained he came from "Vrtswv", and it took me weeks to puzzle it out in those pre-internet days.
Flight-ER-Doc: Well, of course! Vrote-swaff. Just as it's spelled.
Thanks for the clarification, I think. I can't dispute the way it is pronounced but, for sure, it doesn't seem to be spelled correctly.
This old Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer noticed that maintenance facilities/hangars were missing from the list of items being built to accommodate US needs - - did I miss something?....
And when Trump moves those troops to their new base the press will scramble to scream Trump is withdrawing troops from Germany again. (While the Germans complain about the loss of jobs and renters like they did last time.)
Maybe he'll do it on a Thursday, after they're hoarse from screaming over the 478 things he's done M-W and while they're resting up for 73 more things they'll want to scream about on Friday (and through the weekend).
After I retired in 2008 from running Navy and Pentagon budgets I wrote a few op-eds for Defense News. One was titled Coalition of the Billing: US Must Nudge NATO Allies To Carry Larger Burden (Defense News, September 8, 2014, page 21. Pointing out that the EU and many allies have large economies and can support themselves, I also noted they could kick in more because they had no trouble in sustaining trade with potential enemies and minimizing their own defense. That America was borrowing money (lots from potential enemies, such as China) to pay for its own defense. But my takeaway wasn't just to increase from 2 to 5%, but that they if they valuable their liberty and freedom, it wasn't time to pay their fair share, it was time to pay whatever it cost. Nice to see it only took 12 years and a war in Ukraine to learn that...again.
Nobody loves a warrior until the enemy is at the gate.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot
Interesting dichotomy of being hip deep fighting a proxy war against Nato’s (only?) enemy while being accused of not supporting said NATO.
We should help them because they are Gods gift to the free world, unlike the “flawed” democracy that is the US.
Meanwhile Germany is in the middle of a slow motion suicide, an export based economy banning itself from building anything. Norway runs off anybody who has an inclination to do, well anything, with wealth taxes (we don’t need no billionaires, we have oil money for days). UK is self loathing itself into an Islamic police state (with nukes of course). The serious minded East is so serious they don’t have time to (checks notes) make babies. Canada just decided to stick it to the US by making a trade deal with (checks notes again) the farking CPC.. Seriously let’s stick it to America by making sure no one will ever manufacture anything here again. Mwah haha.
I can see where pres is coming from, you know what screw you a holes. Go ahead and write Greenland of America on your map.
I really hope the an organization has a OPLAN to seize control of the UK's nukes when they go down.