Scenario 2: US troops land and would now have to deal with some NATO soldiers.
Regardless of how many NATO soldiers we're talking about, the geopolitical stakes in S2 are orders of magnitude higher than in S1. And so is the political backlash, problems at home, reasons for other nations to respond, etc.
So yes, these few troops, being there, in an official capacity as a NATO deployment no less, matters. Alot.
Scenario 2: US troops land and would now have to deal with some NATO soldiers.
Regardless of how many NATO soldiers we're talking about, the geopolitical stakes in S2 are orders of magnitude higher than in S1. And so is the political backlash, problems at home, reasons for other nations to respond, etc.
So yes, these few troops, being there, in an official capacity as a NATO deployment no less, matters. Alot.