(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Hours after delivering a rambling and eruptive speech in Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden announced that he is sending U.S. forces to eastern Europe in the “near term” as tensions and concerns grow over a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I’ll be moving troops to Eastern Europe in the NATO countries in the near term,” Biden told reporters at Joint Base Andrews upon returning from a trip to Pittsburgh, reported The Hill. “Not too many.”
The Pentagon has put 8,500 troops on heightened alert for potential deployment to NATO countries in Eastern Europe, and Biden’s comments seemed to signal definitively that at least some of those forces would deploy soon. Most of the troops are expected to join a NATO rapid response force in Eastern Europe.
Biden’s comments are the latest sign that the White House believes a Russian invasion to be a strong possibility in the near future.
Biden’s escalating comments come on the heels of what has been widely panned as a disastrous conversation with Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky.
The latest from Biden is almost certain to increase confusion and concern over the administration’s direction, as even Bidden seems befuddled by his own outbursts as actions like withdrawing the threat of major sanctions for Moscow. This from the Wall Street Journal via Red State:
Off the table, for now, are sanctions on oil and natural gas exports or disconnecting Russia from SWIFT, the basic infrastructure that facilitates financial transactions between banks across the world, said one of the officials.
