[Webstral]

If NATO were to insert a rapid reaction force, it would get its butt kicked. In some ways, that would be part of the point. The 82nd Airborne could have accomplished nothing more than being turned into road kill by the Republican Guard if Hussein had invaded Saudi in 1990. The American command knew this and chanced it anyway. It was a supreme act of chicken. If Hussein had annihilated the 82nd Airborne, the leadership was gambling that the American public would demand payback.

Obviously, not everybody would be on board for a crusade to liberate Estonia. What would be interesting is how the forces that be would manage getting people on board and keeping them on board through tax hikes, bond drives, and a draft of some sort. The Military-Industrial Complex would go all in, obviously. How other interest groups would respond would be very interesting to watch. People who normally have a knee jerk reaction to tax increases would have to be convinced, co-opted, or distracted. People who would be opposed to a major war, which is what this probably would become, would have to be silenced or discredited. The military manpower reserve and their parents would have to be motivated.

I think the manner in which the air war was waged and represented (not necessarily in that order) would be important factors. Intrepid reporters operating in occupied Estonia would have to send out word of Russian atrocities. The willingness of the noble Poles to go to the mat with the evil Russian aggressors would have to be played up. Putin's likeness to Hitler would have to be ridden for all the mileage it was worth. If these things could be done--if the people doing the fighting and paying for the fighting could be convinced that this was a chance to do what Britain and France and the rest of the world failed to do when Hitler could have been managed--then it might be possible to get a majority on board and keep them on board for the necessary effort.