U.S. Orders 3,000 Troops to Bolster European Allies in Russia-Ukraine Crisis - WSJ
Category: News & Politics
Via: vic-eldred • 2 years ago • 17 commentsBy: Gordon Lubold and Nancy A. Youssef (WSJ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
WASHINGTON—President Biden is directing the Pentagon to deploy more than 3,000 American troops to bolster the defense of European allies in the first major movement of U.S. forces in Russia's military standoff with Ukraine, U.S. officials said.
Mr. Biden is sending roughly 2,000 troops from Fort Bragg, N.C., to Poland and Germany this week and repositioning about 1,000 troops that are part of a Germany-based infantry Stryker squadron to Romania, on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's eastern flank closest to Russia, the officials said.
In addition, the Pentagon expects to make other moves of forces inside Europe, and has ordered several thousand more troops to be on standby to deploy, beyond the 8,500 troops given similar orders last week , the officials said.
In all, the moves are intended to try to deter Russia from attacking Ukraine and avert war in Eastern Europe, the officials said. Along with these moves, the Biden administration is trying to find a diplomatic solution, readying a barrage of economic sanctions should Russia attack and authorizing the transfer of some weapons and other equipment to Ukraine.
Mr. Biden signed off on the military proposals after meeting Tuesday with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley, the officials said. Mr. Austin discussed the deployments with his counterparts in Romania, Germany and Poland in the past week.
While a few hundred American military trainers and special-operations forces are inside Ukraine, none of the new forces have been authorized to enter the country, and all of the deployments are expected to be temporary, the officials said.
The forces are expected to deploy in the next few days, the officials said, declining to provide details on their specific missions.
“They are trained and equipped for a variety of missions during this period of elevated risk,” said a senior defense official. The deployments also are “meant to deter the threat against the alliance. We are literally willing to put skin in the game.”
Some of the new forces could be used in the event the U.S. military was called upon to help evacuate the roughly 30,000 Americans now living in Ukraine, the official said. Should that be needed, the official said, the troops are unlikely to be sent inside Ukraine to do so and instead would facilitate an evacuation operation by land along the Ukrainian border.
On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the U.S. of trying to goad Moscow into war even as he hoped “dialogue will be continued.” Biden administration officials have said they don’t think Mr. Putin has made a decision whether to invade , though he could do so in the next few weeks.
Last week, Mr. Austin placed at least 8,500 U.S. troops on “prepare-to-deploy orders,” which requires troops to be ready to deploy quickly, in some instances, within hours after being activated.
Since then, that figure has increased by several thousand more troops, the officials said. Some of the troops that are being activated to Europe this week are being drawn from that larger number of troops already identified on standby, the officials said.
The preponderance of those forces on standby would contribute to a NATO response force that is being assembled in case Mr. Putin moves ahead with plans to attack Ukraine.
Other American forces, already stationed in Eastern Europe, could be repositioned to NATO nations as part of the overall response to the crisis which U.S. officials say Mr. Putin has created by conducting a military buildup on three sides of Ukraine.
Russia has denied that it plans to invade, though it said it may have to resort to military measures if its demands that Ukraine not be permitted to join NATO and that the alliance pull back from Eastern Europe aren’t heeded.
Mr. Biden said over the weekend that some American forces could be put on alert to deploy within Eastern Europe, and the Pentagon said on Monday that those deployments were still under consideration. Mr. Biden has said U.S. forces wouldn’t defend Ukraine, but he has promised to support allies.
If the troops on standby are activated, they would deploy to NATO nations in Eastern Europe such as Poland and Lithuania, in logistics, medical, aviation, transportation and other areas, according to defense officials. The Pentagon has said it could also deploy troops to support intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, with drones.
The U.S. decision to prepare forces is among a series of military adjustments across the alliance. The Netherlands, Spain and Denmark are among the NATO countries that began positioning ships and aircraft in a push to bolster Europe’s eastern flank. Canada said it would extend its training program in Ukraine, using as many as 400 troops, for another three years.
Russia has amassed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border, is moving troops and surface-to-air missile systems into Belarus, which borders Ukraine and several NATO members, and has also moved several ships near Ukraine’s shores in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
It's like a Chess match.
Biden puts 3,000 US troops in eastern Europe. Now it's Putin's move and my guess is Putin sends his 125,000 troops into the Ukraine.
Then what Joe?
Perhaps a red line being drawn??
He learned from the best!
He had to find his own crayon as when Trump took the White House, he threw the one Obama left away and it wasn't replaced.
That's the question. If Putie attempts a minor border incursion...then what Brandon?
I think that's when Putin says Checkmate!
When a President has royally screwed up everything, start a war. Biden has gone so far down this rabbit hole that he can no longer extricate himself. Biden broke it and now Biden owns it.
The only thing Biden has accomplished has been to set the stage for an intractable proxy war in Ukraine. Biden is trying to create another Vietnam just to score cheap political points. Ukraine is going to tear itself apart. Let's see if Biden has the guts of Lyndon Johnson to not seek or accept the party's nomination after this fiasco.
The convenient revision of history completely ignores that a European backed insurrection destabilized Ukraine in 2014. Obama screwed up that one. Europe still thinks they can drive Russia out of the Black Sea. Europe only knows how to start global wars; Europe doesn't have a historical track record for preventing global wars. If Europe wants to fight a war with Russia then that's their business. Keep the United States out of this FUBAR petty squabble. The United States has already done Vietnam (at the behest of the French, by the way). We don't need another decades long cold war that will accomplish absolutely nothing.
You really think Biden would fight for the Ukraine?
He might if someone told him Corn Pop was behind it all----I bet that would help Biden find his balls.
Ya, that will get him going!
Oh, I know!
He'll just call Putin a bigot and walk away!
Given how secretive he and the Democrats have been when it comes to the Ukraine, Biden and his crack head kid, I imagine there are things they want to keep hidden. If Russia takes the Ukraine, all those secrets could be exposed.
So, yeah, I'd say he would get us into a war just to cover his ass.
I doubt it. I don't even think he'd go to war to defend the US
The thing Biden is fighting is a PR battle.
Russia doesn't need to invade Ukraine. Putin only needs to provide munitions and safe haven to Ukrainian separatists. Even Biden ain't stupid enough to follow Ukrainian separatists into Russia with 120,000 Russian troops parked on the border. Air America won't be setting up bases of operation in Russia as happened in Cambodia and Laos.
Ukraine is in the midst of a low level civil war. And that civil war is a direct result of the European backed insurrection in 2014. It's a perfect set up for a proxy war. The situation in Ukraine has more similarities with Vietnam than with Afghanistan. The Ukrainian separatists are only a threat to the European backed proxy government in Ukraine; the rhetoric of terrorism simply won't work.
The only way to prevent what is going to happen would be to partition Ukraine now. But that would be a defeat for Europe (and would be seen as a win for Russia). So, we're going to go through a decade of proxy war that will end just like Vietnam ended.
We didn't go to war to defend the US when we were sent back into Iraq (and Syria).
That's true. That was not Joe Biden. I'm saying Joe Biden won't go to war for any reason - even if missiles are fired at the US!
Not that I want him going to war over the Ukraine (I don't), I'm just certain that he won't.
One should never underestimate the level of stupidity residing in Biden.
Or that of his handlers/puppet masters