we want to put that missile defense shield up. that would be a very clear concise message to putin that the united states is serious. the rationale for that missile defense shield was always we were defending ourselves against potential iranian missiles, but the reality is very much against russian missiles and their arsenal, jenna, is very, very powerful very dangerous. jenna: let me just end on that point, colonel i cowan. in 30 seconds i m sure our viewers say, hey, we re talking about isis, middle east iran we ve got this other kind of side show pardon the term in ukraine how does it matter to our foreign policy in other parts of the world? well, look it s the el p pant in the living room elephant in the living room because this is a threat to our real, not quite our distance russia s not going to try and take over the united states, but russia s really going to get into a position where it can force us to do what we re required to do under the provisions of our nato alli
sending these 3000 troops. why? because we re doing that up in latvia lithuania and estonia, all of them watching what s happening in ukraine and very much concerned russia will do the same thing to them once russia has satisfied whatever its objectives may be in ukraine. each of those baltic nations has a small ethnic russian population much as crimea and eastern ukraine did, and they re watching the u.s. and really overall nato response and they re worried about their own safety, security and long-term ability to keep russia out. jenna: colonel cowan, how do you describe the mission? if you had to peek to one of the 3,000 speak to one of the 3,000 troops that gets this assignment how would you describe to them what their mission is over the next three months? with well they re going to develop probably most important thing jenna, develop good working relationships with the troops with the units, with the leaders of the military of those three countries. personal relationships