I spend a lot of time in this blog criticizing President Obama’s foreign policy, so now that the Obama administration has done something good, let me applaud them.
On Tuesday, the White House announced a huge increase in funding for the European Reassurance Initiative,1 up from $789 million this year to $3.4 billion in fiscal year 2017 (which starts October 1, 2016). This will pay to acquire and preposition equipment for a brigade-sized force in locations in Poland and the Baltic states and to keep a brigade present there, different units rotating in and out, full time. This is a big deal. While a single brigade couldn’t stop a Russian invasion,2 it will give Vladimir Putin something to think about before trying it, and it should make it easier for NATO to respond to “little green men” attacks like what Russia did in the Crimea.
While I do have some comments around the edges on how the decision could have been better (see below), the main thing is that we’re doing a lot here. It is a big step in backing up President Obama’s pledge in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2014:
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