Baltics.

This is coolbert:

The American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs has reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to NATO obligations and done most decidedly so [?] with regard to the Baltic states!

This speech of the Chairman before the Atlantic Council in response to the Ukraine crisis from two weeks ago now I was not aware of.

"Dempsey: US Military Will Fulfill Treaty Obligations to NATO Allies"

Those treaty obligations Article Five of the NATO charter. An attack on any constituent member of NATO is an attack on all members of NATO.

    "The U.S. military is prepared to back up NATO if the unrest in Ukraine escalates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said Friday."
. . . .

"'But remember,' he added, 'we do have treaty obligations with our NATO allies. And I have assured them that if that treaty obligation is triggered, we would respond. . . .'"

"Dempsey cautioned, 'If Russia is allowed to do this, which is to say move into a sovereign country under the guise of protecting ethnic Russians in Ukraine, it exposes Eastern Europe to some significant risk, because there are ethnic enclaves all over Eastern Europe and the Balkans.'"

That most extreme case the Russian speaking minority of Latvia. Of the two and one-half million residents of Latvia, about one-third Russian speakers and a very restive and disgruntled minority at that. Latvia a member of NATO!

 As has been noted by Colonel Austin Bay:

"The U.S. withdrew its last tanks from Germany in 2013."

As Mao would have said some time ago: "You paper tiger!"

coolbert.