Plans to Relocate US Troops in Poland Widely Misunderstood, Study Finds
An announcement about the planned relocation of U.S. troops within Poland was widely misunderstood on Polish social media, according to a study.
On Monday, the U.S. said it was relocating troops from the Jasionka airport near Rzeszów, which serves as a hub for supplying military support to Ukraine, a decision that was taken in coordination with Warsaw and NATO.
But it was largely construed as meaning a complete withdrawal of American soldiers from Central and Eastern Europe, researchers from the Res Futura foundation and internet monitoring firm SentiOne said.
According to the study, 58% of the 120 million online comments referencing Jasionka at the beginning of the week repeated the incorrect premise that “U.S. forces are completely withdrawing from Poland.”
Around 41% of commenters incorrectly said that the relocation means “the end to support for Ukraine and the withdrawal of U.S. military presence on NATO’s eastern flank.”
Similar untrue information appeared on Russian social media, where 33% of comments referred to “the US abandoning Poland,” researchers said.
Months of preparations
The relocation announced by the US on Monday had been discussed months in advance, with the decisions taken at the NATO summit in Washington D.C. last July, Poland’s state press agency PAP reported.
The US troops will be redeployed elsewhere in Poland, with Jasionka – a key transit hub for Ukraine in Poland’s southeast – coming under NATO control. Alliance members Germany and the U.K. have taken up some of the responsibilities of running the hub.
Marek Budzisz, an analyst for the geopolitical think tank Strategy&Future, said there were three likely reasons for the redeployment: the US’s expectation of a swift conclusion to the war in Ukraine; the necessity to reduce spending; and US’s global strategy turning towards the Indo-Pacific.
However, media reports have suggested that U.S. defense officials are considering a proposal to withdraw as many as 10,000 troops from Eastern Europe.
Civilian staff reduction?
Jacek Tarociński from Poland’s state-sponsored Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW) suggested that the mooted number may not refer to military personnel, but rather civilians working in the armed forces.
The White House has pushed for the reduction of the military’s civilian employees. Civilian employees in Germany alone amounted to nearly 12,000 people, according to a quarterly report by the Defense Manpower Data Center, which was most recently published in December.
Tarociński said the US military presence in Poland was large and widespread, meaning that any withdrawal would in itself pose a challenge.
He added that a number of actions, including the US Army’s 1st Armored Division taking over command of American forces in the region and the US’s increased presence in the Baltic states, left him assured of their continued presence for at least another six months.
Around 80,000 American troops are stationed in Europe at the moment. In 2022, officials under President Joe Biden’s administration sent an additional 20,000 to the east of the continent, including a 10,000-strong presence in Poland.
Source: Tvp World