{"id":39873,"date":"2018-10-30T06:11:09","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39873"},"modified":"2018-10-30T06:11:09","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T11:11:09","slug":"military-escalation-in-europe-is-like-runaway-train-its-time-to-slow-it-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=39873","title":{"rendered":"Military Escalation in Europe Is Like Runaway Train: It\u2019s Time to Slow It Down"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Military<\/p>\n

Military Escalation in Europe Is Like Runaway Train: It\u2019s Time to Slow It Down<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n

Much has been said about the\u00a0Trident Juncture 2018<\/a>\u00a0NATO exercise being held in the immediate vicinity of Russia\u2019s borders. This is the largest training event since the Cold War, but it\u2019s only part of a broader picture, in which military war preparations targeting Russia are in full swing. Exercises are being coordinated, along with infrastructure facilities that are being built, expanded, and modernized. For instance, last week the construction of an aircraft maintenance hangar at Estonia\u2019s Amari Air Base, the first military project fully funded by the\u00a0European Deterrence Initiative<\/a>\u00a0(EDI),\u00a0was completed<\/a>. The event was\u00a0celebrated<\/a>\u00a0by US and Estonian air force officials with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. More than $38 million in EDI funds are being invested in that base. Beyond the training, a joint maintenance facility will also support the NATO aircraft that are conducting air policing in Eastern Europe. The\u00a0Air Force Times\u00a0<\/em>cited<\/a>\u00a0US Air Forces Europe Commander Gen. Tod Wolters, who promised that even more funding was coming down the pipe for other projects. \u201cLooking into fiscal year 2019, we are proposing a [European Defense Initiative] budget that demonstrates the US commitment to NATO,\u201d he noted. According to him, \u201cOur total [US European Command] request includes a significant funding increase from $4.7 billion to $6.5 billion.”<\/p>\n

The NATO infrastructure modernization plans include upgrades to the Kecskemet Air Base in Hungary so that it can accommodate US F-15 fighters, A-10 attack planes, and C-5 transport aircraft, in addition to building a munitions storage facility at Malacky Air Base, Slovakia and a taxiway at Rygge, Norway. These steps are part of a\u00a0larger effort<\/a>\u00a0to prepare for offensive operations against Russia.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Military Escalation in Europe Is Like Runaway Train: It\u2019s Time to Slow It Down Much has been said about the\u00a0Trident Juncture 2018\u00a0NATO exercise being held in the immediate vicinity of Russia\u2019s borders. This is the largest training event since the Cold War, but it\u2019s only part of a broader picture, in which military war preparations […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[19390,149,22672,281,22673,525,553,694,8203,22235,862],"class_list":["post-39873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-arkady-savitsky","tag-cold-war","tag-edi","tag-europe","tag-european-deterrence-initiative","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-strategic-culture-foundation","tag-trident-juncture","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39874,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39873\/revisions\/39874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}