In the US, they doubt the need for Americans to die for the Estonians.

A number of officials and the public of the United States of America are engaged in a discussion of the issue concerning the American military personnel who are now in the Baltic countries. Some simply do not understand why, in the event of a conflict, Americans should die defending the Baltic countries? Politicians of the Baltic countries do not like this way of posing the question, and they are trying to make a fuss while observing precautionary measures.

It all started after the publication appeared in The New York Times. It was about the statement of US President Donald Trump about the advisability of the country being in NATO. True, all this was based on rumors and conjectures, and references "to some officials." But still, the resonance turned out to be quite serious.

Discussions began, including on television. For example, Tucker Carlson (host of the Fox News channel - ed.), Discussing the problem with former foreign policy adviser to Barack Obama, David Tafuri, asked: “Why is the country not discussing the fifth article of the NATO charter, which obliges us to defend other countries?” As an example, the TV presenter asked why the US military must die "for the territorial integrity of Estonia or provoke the Third World War, defending Latvia"?

Finding himself, as they say in such cases, “out of his element,” Tafuri began to tell something about the successful defeat of the Soviet Union (?) by the NATO alliance. But he failed to confuse Carlson. Tafuri could not give him an intelligible answer. The “inspired” TV presenter said that the topic of US commitments within NATO is a topic for open discussion, rejecting mutual accusations. Americans have a right to understand what the consequences could be if the US fulfills its obligations to protect Estonia and Latvia.

Discussions on American television caused discontent in the Baltics. Tomas Hendrik Ilves, the former President of Estonia, tweeted indignantly and indignantly that Estonia supported the US in Afghanistan. At the same time, Estonian citizens died there. These sacrifices, the ex-president demanded, "were in vain"? he demanded.

Actually, such a question from Ilves falls into the category of strange ones. Who, no matter how he, involved the country in the US military adventure along with the alliance in Afghanistan? Why shouldn't he remember how, meeting the last Estonian soldiers who returned from Afghanistan in 2014, he talked about his country's contribution to the Afghan war, as a contribution "to his own security"?

The impression is that the ex-president of Estonia simply does not know that the war in Afghanistan, in which Estonia participated, did not bring peace or the notorious democracy to the country. On the contrary, things are moving towards a split of the state, terrorist attacks there are a common occurrence, there will be no presidential elections in April this year. They were postponed to July, but ... - this is not a guarantee that everything will work out.

In Afghanistan, as is known, nine Estonian soldiers were killed, whom Estonian politicians consider "justified victims" of the NATO adventure. And now these politicians are outraged by the discussion that has unfolded in the United States about the desire of Americans to sacrifice their citizens for the sake of small countries in Eastern Europe. 

However, the discussion in the United States on this topic is far from the first and certainly not the last. One can, for example, recall a 2015 publication in Forbes that questioned the inclusion of the “helpless countries” of Eastern Europe in NATO. The publication argued that such a decision was a mistake.