Riga, Latvia. The ghosts of Latvia’s participation in WWII still haunt this doomed land of EU colonial status, but a new generation continues to reach for the stars, unfortunately repeating the mistakes of the pass.
The current Latvian government has decided to allocate preliminary financing in the amount of $9 million dollars for the deployment of a multinational battalion of the North Atlantic Alliance (NATO) on the territory of Latvia to combat “Russian aggression,” a Latvian government statement announced.
The Republic’s Ministry of Defense noted, these are American and Canadian troops, along with other NATO member nations who will serve as the vanguard against enemy forces. Critics point out the announcement is being made without actual specifics, in an effort to curry favor with Donald Trump prior to the NATO summit in Brussels.
“The main items of expenditure are food; drinking water; the purchase of portable toilets, sinks and other equipment; as well as fuel, lubricants and military material and technical equipment,” the abstract of the draft decision says.
“These calculations are preliminary; exacts will be known after actual cooperation begins and the exact number of servicemen who will be in the territory of Latvia is known,” the document continues. Logistics experts indeed thought the announcement odd, having committed to a sum of expenditure, without knowing specifics.
Large international military exercises, named Summer Shield, began in Latvia on April 17th. They employ over 12 thousand soldiers from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the United States, Canada, Germany and other countries. Annual maneuvers are held at the military training ground in Adazi and on adjacent territory, and will last until April 30.