Stardate 20011011.1457 (On Screen): Much is being made of the fact that military units from Europe are being deployed in the US for active duty. While this is in fact an important step, it's primarily political, not practical. They're operating
AWACS jets in American air space so as to free up US AWACS to operate in the Middle East if they're needed there. The only case in which the European AWACS would actually see combat were in case of an invasion of the US, which is a rather remote possibility right now. The primary reason they're here is as a gesture of solidarity and support, for the benefit of voters both in the US and in Europe. In other words, they're here so that US voters don't start asking each other,
"Why
are we in NATO, anyway? What good does it do
us?"And I think there may also be some political pressure in Europe to get involved. With the US being hurt and going into a war, the fact that Britain stood right up and got involved too makes the tepid response from such nations as Germany, France, Spain and Italy look bad, especially in light of the invocation of NATO Article 5. Which may be why they're beginning to think in terms of actually getting into the real combat, in the air and on the ground (if that time comes). (discuss)
