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If their defense strategy is to fight the Russians to the last dead GI, I think we’d be better off having Estonia under the Russian flag.

The Estonians probably realize the kenyan isn’t going to send any GIs. There are no NATO facilities in the Baltics and historically only a few NATO aircraft have been deployed there. It’s appropriate now to expand the NATO footprint in the Baltics but obama is refusing to do it. Given that, it’s hard to see any small European country getting into a shooting war with Russia.

We are in a very dangerous situation right now because of the weakness being projected by obama and the EU. Putin will probe the NATO alliance at a time of his choosing.

The Estonians probably realize the kenyan isn’t going to send any GIs. There are no NATO facilities in the Baltics and historically only a few NATO aircraft have been deployed there. It’s appropriate now to expand the NATO footprint in the Baltics but obama is refusing to do it. Given that, it’s hard to see any small European country getting into a shooting war with Russia.

If they don't value their freedom enough to sacrifice their young men for it, why should we sacrifice ours? Do I think Russian revanchism and irredentism are a danger to global security? Sure. But wars have costs. That our ~~military dependents~~ in the Baltic states want to use us as their defense of first resort means we bear most of the costs. Maybe I'm being unreasonable, but it seems to me that since their freedom is the main item under threat, maybe they should bear a big portion of the burden of preparing for war, including spending more than 1% to 2% of their GDP on defense. We spend 4.4% and it's not like we have strong and dangerous neighbors on our borders.

The three Baltic states have no interceptor aircraft and a population of 6m among them. Singapore has a population of 5m, its inventory includes 143 interceptor/fighter aircraft (mostly late model F-15's and F-16's and a small number of upgraded F-5's) and potential adversaries are nothing on Russia's scale. Heck, even the Finnish Air Force contains 52 F-18's, and Finland's population is only 5m. If the Baltic states don't want to make the sacrifices needed to protect themselves, there's a pretty poor case for us jumping in to help them, NATO allies or not. Welfare cases must sometimes be cut off. Without a bit of tough love, the rest of our "allies" will follow in their footsteps by similarly reducing their militaries to the point that they might be able to deal with domestic disturbances and not much else.