It’s Time to Reopen a Base on Iceland

[Geee]

Commentary Magazine:

In recent months, Russian probing and aggression against NATO has grown both more aggressive and more frequent. While NATO should be treated as a unitary whole and not an alliance of tiers, recent Russian aggression has targeted not only Scandinavia and the Baltics, but also Great Britain and the United States. The Russian navy has recently grown so bold as to shadow U.S. aircraft carriers and other ships as they leave port and enter international waters. The Russian submarine fleet is also growing: the Russian navy will upgrade ten nuclear submarines within the next five years. Alas, many NATO countries have let their capabilities slide. Great Britain, for example, recently had to request U.S. assistance to search for a Russian submarine suspected of infiltrated its waters off Scotland. Such Russian belligerence will only become worse if Russian strongman Vladimir Putin concludes President Barack Obama’s snubs toward NATO suggest ambivalence and weakness.

 

During the Cold War—that is the one Washington acknowledged rather than denied—Iceland and, specifically the U.S. base at Keflavik, became crucially important to U.S. defense. (Indeed, Iceland was center stage to one of Tom Clancy’s first Cold War thrillers). Soviet submarines heading into the North Atlantic would normally traverse the GIUK [Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom] gap, and American surveillance aircraft and other anti-submarine warfare platforms would operate in the area.

[Cyber_Liberty]

This'll happen.