StratCom sent a communication card to coalition politicians on Feb. 20 encouraging them to use the argument that, "European states must increase their defense-spending efforts in line with U.S. demands but at the same time act independently of U.S. positions." PM Petr Fiala complied yesterday by calling the changes in U.S. policy under Donald Trump an opportunity and stressing the need for increasing defense spending to 3% of GDP in the next few years. Army Chief of Staff Karel Řehka indicated in Nov. that military recruitment is being managed so poorly that the army is heading inescapably toward a situation in which there will be new defense equipment but no one to operate it. For Fiala, buying more military equipment is a way to indulge Trump while boosting the Czech defense industry and increasing the deterrence against the Russian threat. Yet tanks and fighters without soldiers to man them are a fake deterrent that are the military equivalent of a Potemkin village.