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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Meanwhile at the Poland and Ukraine border.  This is provoking Russia and we shouldn't be there.

[twitter]https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1503136408457945089?t=Jped04wUM8_-6k4a4dXenQ&s=19[/twitter][/quote]

Putin doesn't need any provocation.  He has bombed hospitals, schools, apartments, and committed other war crimes.  
Why are the US and other countries allowing Putin to set the rules of engagement and the timeline?  
Why are world leaders so fearful of this maniac?  It is time to stop fearing him and start getting a spine.  [/quote]
OMG! Why are you so eager for WWIII? Is the destruction of one country not good enough for you? Should we destroy all of European the world to make you happy?
If you are a Trumper, should you not be happy about no more wars rhetoric? After all, you praise Trump so much for it.[/quote]

PP who refers to the news story and calls the actions it describes a provocation,  I want to be clear - you are criticizing the US for “loading troops” in a town inside Poland which is 60 Miles away from the Ukraine border (further away than Baltimore is from DC). You call this a “provocation”.  Poland is a NATO member since 1999.  The US has a mutual defense obligation under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.  Deploying US troops near the border is a way of showing Putin that NATO members take mutual defense seriously and will respond at the first incursion into Polish territory.  (BTW, NATO’s first-ever invocation of Article 5 was on behalf of the US after 9/11.)

The only reason the US or other NATO troops were not deployed so close to the Polish border prior to the Russian invasion is That NATO was complying with the terms of the 1997 NATO Russia Founding Act - under the terms of this Act, Russia agreed to abide by a variety of norms (norms of international conduct in the UN Charter and OSCE Helsinki Final Act and explicit commitments, such as respecting the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of states and settling disputes peacefully - obviously violated by Russia’s invasion of and conduct in Ukraine).

Under this Act, NATO agreed to conduct mutual defense by, “that in the current and foreseeable security environment, NATO will carry out its collective defense and other missions through interoperability, integration and capability for reinforcement rather than by additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces on the territory of new members.”. NATO adhered to that pledge not permanently station new forces on territory of new members. 
See - https://1997-2001.state.gov/regions/eur/fs_nato_whitehouse.html

Until, that is, Russia broke the treaty by invading Ukraine. One could say that they broke the treaty in 2014 when they invaded Ukraine in te Donbas and Crimea, but still NATO continued to support agreements that would prevent the conflict from widening.

But, now that Putin has further invaded and considering that he has positioned Russian troops inside Belarus very close to the Suwalki Gap - threatening Poland, Lithuania and the Baltics - NATO considers that Russia’s action make their obligations under the Act moot.

When you consider the facts, who is provoking whom?

It is not a “provocation” for the Poles to defend themselves or invite allies in to help defend themselves nor for the US to fulfill its NATO mutual defense obligations. Especially when these defense acts occur entirely within Polish territory - it is an exercise of sovereignty. [/quote]

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