NATO is eager to throw ever-growing numbers of troops at Eastern Europe, but defense ministers have so far made clear that they aren’t interested in permanent bases in Poland, something the Polish government is eagerly pushing.
In an apparent effort to ingratiate themselves to NATO, in the hopes of getting more largesse in the form of such bases, Polish defense officials are promising to commit more troops to the Middle East, and talking up the idea of throwing troops at the ISIS war.
Polish officials have complained about the lack of permanent NATO bases in their country for years saying they believed they were promised that when they joined. The Eastern Europe escalation, nominally aimed at “Russian aggression,” has been welcomed by the Polish government, but the rest of NATO prefers a temporary deployment.
Right now, Poland’s involvement in the ISIS war is limited to some arms shipments into Jordan, and while officials are so far saying they hope to avoid “frontline” involvement, they are willing to commit ground troops, at a time when the US in particular is desperate to get more boots on the ground in the war.