For several decades during the cold war, the US Berlin Brigade (and its British and French counterparts) defended West Berlin. What could those hugely outnumbered American soldiers have done had the Red Army attacked? As strategist Thomas Schelling bluntly put it, they could die – heroically perhaps – but in any case American military power would seek to avenge them. That tripwire deterred the Soviets and kept West Berlin free.
Given Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, companies of airborne soldiers have been deployed to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to assure those countries and serve as tripwires. But the soldiers are all Americans. Where are the Europeans? Their absence could lead to miscalculation in the Kremlin and questions in US Congress.
In the past three months, Moscow has seized Crimea by force and roiled the waters in eastern Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin asserts a right to protect ethnic Russians and Russian speakers wherever they live and regardless of their nationality. That understandably worries Nato members Estonia and Latvia, countries in which 1 in 4 citizens is an ethnic Russian.