Does ‘America first’ really mean ‘Europe first’ in the preparation for war with Russia?
At the expense of the American taxpayer, the Trump administration wants to restore the Cold War-era footprint in Europethrough massive investments in military infrastructure to deter Russian aggression and reinforce allies.
It is odd that the administration wants to spend massive amounts of money on infrastructure projects in Europe, but has yet to fix America’s crippling D- infrastructure. Somehow, the priorities of this administration of ‘America first’ have been lost through the alignment with the military-industrial-complex and Washington’s warmongers.
The Trump administration asked for $828 million in 2019 to expand and upgrade military infrastructure projects throughout Europe as part of a continuous fearmongering campaign against Russia to allocate more money to defense. Nearly half of that construction funding would go towards U.S. Air Force projects.
The request for additional funding would more than double the military’s infrastructure projects under the European Deterrence Initiative (EDI), from the 2018 request, when just a few years ago, the Pentagon was scaling back its Cold War-era footprint in Europe.
According to Defense News, the EDI request increased to $6.5 billion from $4.8 billion in 2018, military construction projects in the EDI request jumped from $338 million in 2018, while pre-positioning funds soared from $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion.
The Air Force would spend roughly $368.6 million to pre-position equipment and $363.8 million for military construction projects. While the spending is almost equal to what was expensed in fiscal 2018, it is a huge jump from 2017, when the Air Force was only allotted $31.2 million in pre-positioning funds and $85.4 million for military construction.
What is the reasoning behind the increased military infrastructure spending in Europe?
Well, it is the idea if Russia invaded a NATO ally — the U.S. Air Force will have the tools to instantly respond to the threat, supported by upgraded airfields to reload munitions, higher capacity refueling stations, and more engineering bays to service damaged aircraft.
Areas of focus include Air Force assets in NATO countries, like Germany and the United Kingdom, and countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
Defense News notes that the Trump administration is not planning on constructing new airbases in former Soviet bloc countries, but it is upgrading existing infrastructure to ensure its fifth-generation fighter jets, drones, and other aircraft are adequately prepared for the next round of hybrid wars.
“It makes it easier to reinforce [allies] in a crisis,” said Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps officer and senior international security adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The munitions, the taxiways and refueling points makes it much easier to move in there in an emergency,” Cancian added.
During congressional testimony in March, U.S. European Command chief Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti confirmed the plans of a rapid military infrastructure program in Europe. He told U.S. lawmakers that the...