U.S. could increase military presence in Europe – General Dempsey

Thursday, November 6, 2014 - 11:26 (EET) Section: Latest news

The United States could increase its military contingent in Europe in order to protect NATO allies from Russian aggression.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army General Martin Dempsey said this in New York on Wednesday, Ukrinform’s correspondent reported.
“Our principal responsibility here, of course, is our NATO commitment, notably the Article 5 responsibility, which says an attack on one is an attack on all,” the general said.
However, he said, the difficulty is in Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine – the nations located between NATO allies and Russian aggressiveness. To help in meeting that challenge, he said, the U.S. military needs to do different things with rotational presence.
“We probably need to do some things in every domain – air, sea and ground. It’s going to, I think, require us to put forces back into Europe that we had taken out,” the general said.
Dempsey said he does not expect the American forces in the region to be “dramatically big,” but he added that “they’ll be substantial enough to allow us to deter Russian aggression against our NATO allies.”
Russia is creating an unstable situation, Dempsey said, and it has also “kind of lit a fire of nationalism.”
“Once you light that fire, it’s not controllable. I am worried about Europe,” he said.