US tanks and troops land at Russian borders
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ZAGAN, Poland — On a snowy field in southwest Poland, U.S. tanks and troops gathered on Monday to defend against a resurgent Russia that President Trump wants to befriend.
The troops — part of the largest U.S. deployment to Europe since the Cold War — plan to spread across Eastern Europe, fanning into the Baltic nations, digging in to Poland and also deploying to Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.
Major new commitments were made in July at a NATO summit in Warsaw by then-President Barack Obama, and at the time they seemed like a bipartisan expression of support for U.S. allies at a moment of heightened fear about Russia.
Now, however, they are coming despite the White House, not because of it. Eastern European nations say they fully trust Washington’s commitments — but the jubilation of the summer has been replaced by concern over Trump’s overtures to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
NATO leaders acknowledge that the alliance would be rocked if Trump abandons the troop deployments.
