After more than a decade spent fighting Islamic insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States Army is scrambling to relearn Cold War-era skills to confront potential threats from Russia here in Eastern Europe, territory formerly defended by the Soviet Army.
The adjustments to the new threats are wide ranging. Hundreds of desert-tan battle tanks and armored fighting vehicles must be repainted dark green to blend into European terrain. Soldiers accustomed to operating from large, secure bases in Iraq and Afghanistan must now practice using camouflage netting to disguise their positions and dispersing into smaller groups to avoid sophisticated surveillance drones that could direct rocket or missile attacks against personnel or command posts.
A 10-day exercise last month involving 25,000 American and allied forces spread across three former Warsaw Pact countries — Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria — offered a window into how a generation of senior Army commanders are rehearsing updated tactics and strategies once used to counter Soviet troops, tanks and artillery, including nighttime aerial assaults by hundreds of paratroopers. The commanders are training a younger force that has mainly faced shadowy terrorist foes in the Middle East and Southwest Asia since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We have to figure out how to adapt to this new environment,” said Col. Clair A. Gill, a 1994 West Point graduate who commands the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Drum, N.Y., which flies Apache, Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters. “I don’t think we’re there yet.”
To be sure, commanders are expected to argue that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will still require thousands of American troops for the foreseeable future. But the United States and its NATO allies recently completed positioning about 4,500 soldiers in the three Baltic States and Poland, and are preparing to keep several thousand armored troops on the Continent as a deterrent to Russian aggression.
These tensions are part of an expanding rivalry and military buildup, with echoes of the Cold War, between Washington and Moscow.
The article goes on to point out that this is by no means one sided, Russia is also strategically positioning troops and engaging in military exercises as well.
As somebody who was born during the Cold War I cannot say that I am excited about returning to that particular situation.
However considering what the Russians did during this last election, I do not see that we have a whole lot of choice but to beef up our defenses and start treating them as a hostile force.
Much like before I doubt it will ever come to an actual military exchange, however it is better in my mind to prepare for that possibility than to follow Trump's lead and acquiesce to Putin's demands that America bend a knee.
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