Europe: What Does France Want?

This is proof that you just can't please anyone no matter what you do. The president of France, Emmanuel Macron has been extremely vocal as of late, stating that the United States is leaving its European allies behind when it comes to the ever-present threat of Russia. There are a few things that we believe Macron is conveniently ignoring, kind of like how they ignored Germany going through Belgium in World War 2.First off, the United States Marine Corps is increasing, at the behest of Norway, the number of troops cycling through to conduct training in the bitter cold weather. Since World War 2, the only foreign troops that have been allowed in Norway for training are the United States Marines, and that only started in 2017. Norway and the United States Marine Corps are looking to double the amount of Marines who receive training in Cold Weather Warfare. Newsflash Macron, Norway shares a border with Russia, albeit a very tiny portion up towards the Barents Sea, but a border nonetheless.The re-launching/activating of the Second Fleet is another step the United States has taken to pre-emptively put itself in great position to counter any Russian aggression. The second fleet has been outmaneuvering Russia since the Cold War and its activation is a signal that the United States is taking the Russian threat seriously.

Finally, Poland is asking the United States to place a permanent base there, despite other countries wanting us out, Poland recognizes the current state of world affairs and the Russian resurgence (if it could really be called that). There is currently no permanent force in Poland, but they want an entire armored division to dissuade any Russian attempts to "annex" more lands.So yeah, that's it France, the United States is just giving Europe the giant middle finger by adding troops to one country, beefing up the naval power in the Atlantic and possibly putting an armored division in Poland. From what we can tell we're totally leaving France and the rest of Europe totally open to attack.[caption id="attachment_18574" align="alignnone" width="750"]

U.S. Marine Corps amphibious assault vehicles line up by the Trondheim Fjord, Norway, Jan. 9. These vehicles from the Marine Corps Prepositioning Program-Norway will support exercise Cold Response 16, scheduled for later this month, with crisis response equipment including M1A1 battle tanks, amphibious assault vehicles, artillery, and logistics equipment drawn from Norwegian caves.[/caption]If you didn't catch the sarcasm, then you're probably from France and agree with the claims made by their president. Maybe he's just mad for being called out for not meeting the 2% budget guidelines for defense within NATO. (gasp)