what does this actually mean? is that more just for show of giving some confidence to those countries? >> it is confidence building. it's also a deterrent. but these countries are looking at what russia is doing. they know russia has an appetite to go further than ukraine, and so they're asking for reinforcement, for a show of support. will the united states really take the risk. they're looking at what nato is doing in ukraine. okay, everybody said they weren't a nato member, we don't have to help them. we don't have to defend them. we're going to help them but we're not going to defend them. so these countries in eastern europe say, okay -- you know, the russians have given us a threat that's a nuclear threat and they did mobilize or raise their alert posture of their nuclear forces. so we haven't thought much about that in the united states, but i can tell you it's casting a heavy shadow in europe. these countries on the one hand