President Barack Obama Reignites the Cold War

As the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall nears, U.S. President Barack Obama announced this Tuesday in Warsaw a billion-dollar program, about 735 million euro, to increase American military presence on NATO’s Eastern border. At the same time that German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin with the intention of deciding on stability measures for Ukraine, and as the G7, as a gesture of goodwill, leaked that no new sanctions against Russia will come out of the meeting that its representatives will hold this Tuesday in Brussels, Obama struck a threatening tone in Poland that was very far from conversational or conciliatory. “Further Russian provocation will be met with further costs for Russia,” he said, in clear reference to the uselessness of the sanctions the U.S. and the EU have imposed on Russia since last February.

The revitalizing effect that an extra $1 billion budgetary line item — with the excuse of the threat against Poland — will have on the U.S. economy doesn’t escape anybody, even though Obama has made an effort to portray it as the “commitment of the United States to the security of Poland.” At times it even looked like he felt obliged to return a favor, when he mentioned that he wanted to make a “show of support to allies who have contributed robustly and bravely to Alliance operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere and who are now deeply concerned by Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea and other provocative actions in Ukraine.”

Helping “Make Poland Secure”

According to an explanatory document distributed by the U.S. Mission to NATO, the plan includes increasing exercises, training and rotational presence in Europe, especially on the territory of “newer allies.” It will also serve to increase the responsiveness of U.S. NATO forces and explore initiatives on the prepositioning of equipment and improvements to European facilities and infrastructure. Other goals contemplated in the plan are increasing the participation of the U.S. Navy in allied naval force deployments in the Black and Mediterranean seas, as well as building the capacity of “close friends” such as Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, so they “can better work alongside the U.S. and NATO” and provide for their own defense.

Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski listened with satisfaction to Obama’s words and, pointing to the F-16s behind him, the stage décor of their joint press conference, thanked the U.S. for helping “make Poland secure.” The Obama who introduced himself to Europe in Berlin in July 2008 proclaiming that the only way forward is to “tear down” walls and “build new bridges” was unrecognizable this Tuesday as he encouraged the Western countries in NATO to increase their defense budgets. “We have seen a decline steadily in European defense spending,” he said, “that has to change.”

Obama’s call to arms received a warm welcome in countries that, due to their proximity to the Ukrainian conflict, feel there is little commitment behind the EU negotiating efforts. In the East, in fact, there is already a self-defense market based on bilateral neighbor relations. The Czech Republic, for example, is willing to make available components of its anti-aircraft defenses to the Baltic countries, according to its defense minister, Martin Stropnicky, who has already extended to nine weeks Czech pilot’s autumn mission on Gripen fighter jets.

Putin Will Not Meet with Obama

In Brussels, the ministers of defense of the Transatlantic Alliance welcomed the plan, considering it “another sign of leadership and determination.”* NATO’s Secretary General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, also supported the American announcement and stated that it would “help promote exercises and improve infrastructure in Europe.”*

Pressured by those in his country who criticize him for having a weak foreign profile, Obama is determined to adjust the permanent deployment of American troops in Europe, although that troop deployment could end up being more complicated than it looks. Western European members of NATO will surely refuse to cover the costs and will argue that a large increase in American forces in the area could trigger reciprocal measures from Moscow, which would start a new arms race such as those this continent has promised itself never to allow again. As an argument in favor of the arms race, Obama alleged that the defense of the Eastern countries is “sacrosanct” and “a cornerstone of our own security,” while he inspected a hangar of Polish fighter jets and warned that “[we] need to make sure the collective defense effort is robust, it is ready, it is properly equipped.”

Obama is planning on meeting this Wednesday with Ukrainian President-elect Petro Poroshenko in Warsaw, and attending celebrations in France with Russian President Vladimir Putin to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the landing in Normandy during World War II. The Kremlin has confirmed that Putin will hold private meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, with French President Francois Hollande and with British Prime Minister David Cameron, but has no intention of meeting with Obama.

*Editor’s Note: These quotations, accurately translated, could not be verified.