Send Putin a Message in Eastern Europe

President Barack Obama’s new budget is very generous to the Pentagon -- at $600 billion, overly so. But one welcome proposal is a quadrupling of military spending in Eastern and Central Europe, to $3.4 billion. As a message to Russia and to ease the rising fears of the ex-Soviet Baltic states, it could be money well-spent.

The anxiety in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is not unjustified. Russian President Vladimir Putin, his military adventurism having paid dividends in Syria and Ukraine, could soon turn his attention to the Baltics. And several reports -- from within the military and without -- suggest that a greater U.S. military presence in Eastern Europe would make a difference.