U.S. troops and armored vehicles and the Polish navy participated in a military exercise whose name rather suggests a substandard perfume or an “adult entertainment” actress who never made the grade: Amber Desire.
The exercise was led by Headquarters Multinational Division North East, which was activated in 2017 as part of the Pentagon’s and NATO’s military encirclement of Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad district. The U.S. has Atlantic Resolve troops and military equipment in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and NATO has complementary Enhanced Forward Presence Battle Groups in the four nations bordering Belarus, Kaliningrad and the main body of Russia.
Headquarters Multinational Division North East oversees the Lithuanian Iron Wolf Mechanized Infantry Brigade and the Polish 15th Mechanized Brigade as well as their affiliated NATO Battle Groups in Lithuania and Poland. The sort of armored units that rolled across Belarus and Russia eighty years ago today. Though this time under U.S. command.
This year’s drills focused on what NATO’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe identified as testing the rapid mobility of the multinational forces’ forward command element. Troops and armored vehicles were deployed to the Polish naval base in Gdynia where an interceptor-missile/guided-missile destroyer docked recently during the large-scale U.S.-NATO Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) war games.
NATO states Amber Desire 21 provided the opportunity for American, Lithuanian and Polish armed forces to “maintain a high level of interoperability.”
The North Atlantic military bloc also said of the maneuvers that they are designed “to test the ability of a task team with a mobile command element to move anywhere across the Division’s Area of Responsibility on a very short notice.” Lightning war, anyone?
Part of the exercises included a drill in the Baltic Sea, but the main part of them involved the embarkation and disembarkation of heavy equipment and troops. Much as occurred in the same location eighty years ago – for history buffs.
The NATO press release on the war games states:
“Through this close cooperation with the Polish Navy, the Division soldiers have broadened their experience and skills so they are fully prepared to execute critical missions across the Baltic Sea region at a moment’s notice.”
And what may prove of interest, though hardly of a reassuring nature, to locals with a memory longer than yesterday’s carry-out meal and last Saturday’s sporting event, NATO mentions that the Multinational Division North East “is ready to carry out collective defence operations in accordance with Article 5 of the Washington Treaty.”
Rick Rozoff is a contributing editor at Antiwar.com. He has been involved in anti-war and anti-interventionist work in various capacities for forty years. He lives in Chicago, Illinois. He is the manager of Stop NATO. This originally appeared at Anti-Bellum.
Rust never sleeps. And the creeps who populate these units are cruisin for some awful supprises if or when they decide to go active. It would’ve been better, waaay better if Georgian president & hothead Shashakavela had NEVER invaded S. Ossetisa and killed a couple score of peacekeeper troops, for all the wanna-be future invaders of Russia. Getting caught flat footed by THAT invasion surely steeled them from allowing any repeat of that embarrassing route. And though it was embarrassing, the Russians SURE taught Georgia a bitter lesson, and even made GW Bush look like a fool when the RussianS not only sent in the troops & bombers, but invaded Georgia proper and are STILL there ocupping it today, far as I know. Just like Ukraine, there can be a heavy price for messing with the Russian Bear.
Hi MvGuy, I agree with you brother. Please check the down-vote button. You may have down-voted your own comment by mistake.
I have a lot of Polish friends. I don’t discuss politics with them but I know that they generally don’t appreciate the Soviet era, which I totally understand. But we are beyond the Soviet/USSR threat. After losing so many in WW2, one would hope that the Polish people are not in agreement with their government’s strong support of NATO’s aggression. Also, if they are still influenced by that history, I hope they remember Germany’s atrocities in their country as well. In summary, if I were Polish, I would have a strong objection against all wars and be staunchly anti-NATO aggression toward Russia.
Wanna tork off a Pole? Want to send Stanek or Luiza into a spitting mad Donald Duck meltdown?
Simple, tell them this: the only reason that there are Polish people alive in Poland today is because of the Red Army.
That’s not to excuse anything else that the Soviets did, but the Nazis were not only ready, willing and able to follow the extermination of Jews with that of Poles, they were working hard to to make such a thing come to pass.
Loved the “…spitting mad Donald Duck meltdown?”
I think I lifted that particular nugget from Ian Welsh.