This is “not because NATO wants to attack anyone but because the dangers and the threats are more present and more visible”, Rasmussen said, adding that “we will do what it takes to defend our allies”. A rotation of troops through member states at upgraded military facilities, with equipment pre-positioned to speed up the response time, was explicitly given as an example of such actual and planned for the future military activities. For the first time after many years “a more visible NATO presence in the East for as long as required” is considered not only necessary but a duty of the Alliance to respect his assumed obligations. Even if real-time assessments are difficult to make, historians consider the actual situation as the most severe threat to Euro-Atlantic security in a generation.
