Poland Says That if the U.S. Has Some Spare Nukes They'd Be Happy to Take Care of Them

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski was quoted in the German weekly newspaper Welt am Sonntag as saying that Poland would be open to hosting American nuclear weapons.

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Kaczynski is not a rando politician trying to get name recognition. On the contrary, he is the founder and leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party and is frequently referred to as Poland’s “chief of state.”

“Basically, it makes sense to expand nuclear sharing to the eastern flank,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, in a reference to Nato’s northeastern members Poland and the Baltic states. “If the Americans asked us to store US nuclear weapons in Poland, we would be open to that. It would significantly increase deterrence towards Moscow.”

Poland is pushing for “a large operational Nato command in Poland”, Kaczynski said, such as the allied air command in the Netherlands at Brunssum, “where joint Nato operations can be planned and conducted”.

He said: “That would send a clear signal to Moscow: the Nato leadership is now also present in the east,” and urged Washington to increase troop numbers “from the present 100,000 soldiers up to 150,000 in the future due to Russia’s increasing aggression. Of these, 75,000 soldiers should be stationed on the eastern flank, on the border with Russia, with 50,000 soldiers in the Baltic states and Poland.”

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It is more or less an open secret that the United States has nuclear weapons stored in several European countries (Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Büchel Air Base in Germany, Aviano and Ghedi Air Bases in Italy, Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands, and Incirlik in Turkey). These weapons have been there for decades. Similar hosting arrangements in several other European countries, as well as those with our allies in East Asia, have expired. If Poland were selected to host US nuclear weapons, it would be the first such move since the early 1950s.

I’m not sure what is to be gained, in the way of strategic advantage, by moving nukes to Poland. Still, moving nukes and permanently basing a large number of NATO troops in Poland would send an unmistakable message to Putin that his run as the neighborhood bully is over.

The Russians aren’t happy. In fact, the Russians should probably start identifying as gay because they are never happy about anything.

Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a move would only lead to heightened tensions

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Know what else leads to “heightened tensions?” Invading neighboring countries that pose no risk—threatening everyone in sight with a nuclear attack if you don’t get your way—killing dissidents in foreign countries.

I think we’ve reached a point where we have to admit a Second Cold War is underway and the only way to prevent more wars in Europe, like the one in Ukraine, is to heavily fortify nations bordering Russia and bring them into NATO. Instead, what we see in Ukraine is that there is no logical reason to consider Russia as anything other than the same hostile and aggressive power that forced the creation of NATO in the first place.

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