US Marines headed to Eastern Europe...

via AP

BERLIN (AP) — A U.S. Marine Corps commander says a unit equipped with tanks, light armored vehicles and artillery will be sent to Bulgaria this fall as part of American plans to help reassure NATO allies worried by Russia's involvement in Ukraine.
Brig. Gen. Norman Cooling, deputy commander of U.S. Marine Corps Europe, told The Associated Press on Thursday that 155 Marines equipped with four Abrams tanks, six light armored vehicles and three howitzers are scheduled to be in place at the Novo Selo training area by early September.
The Marine unit will train with Bulgarian, Romanian and other allied forces over the next 18 months.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this week that more American military equipment would be positioned in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Germany.

A few things...The USMC better get a handle on all these penny packet deployments.  Unless they're throwing out dwell to deployment time then they're going to be jacking things up down the road pretty soon.

Next, isn't this kinda intruding on Army territory?  The US Army hasn't shrunk so far that it can't handle Europe.  Additionally if Africa, the Pacific and the Middle East need coverage then zooming over to an area that is already covered is a waste of resources.

My last point is this.  What is up with this package?!  Four tanks, six LAVs and three howitzers?  Is this a rollout for the Ground Combat Element portion of the Company Landing Team?  I don't quite understand this setup.

Things in the Marine Corps has gone from very interesting to curious.

UPDATE:  Found out that this is an "add on" to the Black Sea Rotational Force.  The point remains though.  We're moving back into Europe instead of letting the Europeans take care of their own backyard.  Why are we subsidizing their defense?