New NATO Chief: We Can Put Troops Wherever We Want

Spurns Baltic States' Calls for Permanent Troops

New NATO chief Jens Stollenberg insisted today on a mission to Poland that he doesn’t believe Cold War agreements on troop limitations in Eastern Europe apply any longer.

Stollenberg insisted that NATO can put troops wherever it wants and no treaties would be used to limit its decisions on deployments, which hyping a planned “spearhead” force to be deployed along the Russian frontier.

He talked up the idea of sending more troops to Poland above and beyond the planned spearhead force, though he spurned pushes for permanent bases in the Baltic states, citing the enormous cost of such operations.

The cost of such operations is largely the appeal for the US and other top NATO spenders, which are pushing all NATO member nations to dramatically icnrease their military spending.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.