(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) President Joe Biden on Thursday authorized the deployment of up to 3,000 U.S. military reservists to Europe as part of a response to Russian actions against Ukraine, the Gateway Pundit reported.
“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America … I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility,” the 80-year-old president said in a statement released by the White House.
Biden made the move after his two-day stint at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, and amid Ukraine’s continued push to join NATO.
The deployment—including up to 450 members of the Individual Ready Reserve for Operation Atlantic Resolve—marked yet another departure from the president’s early promises that the U.S. would not get involved in a ground war protecting the former Soviet nation, with which there is no formal defense treaty.
Since then, he has progressively ratchted up the level of weaponry and U.S. military committment in the region, even at the expense of America’s own national security.
Despite the waning public support for operations there, Biden—whose family has long conducted private business with Ukrainian oligarchs—has doubled down, expending untold U.S. billions on the war effort and support for Ukrainian pensions and salaries.
Democrats have rejected calls for an inspector general or oversight office to track the funding, while the Pentagon has announced several clerical errors that have remitted to Ukraine billions more in funding than the amount authorized by Congress.
Ostensibly, the U.S. troops will be part of a broader NATO mission supporting military readiness in the event that the Western alliance gets drawn into World War III.
Operation Atlantic Resolve was launched in 2014 in response to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. It involved the deployment of combat-credible forces to Europe in order to demonstrate NATO’s commitment, enhance ally and partner military bonds and build readiness.
The Individual Ready Reserve has not been used for nearly 20 years, but the new order has given them the authority to be called to service if required.
The IRR will consist of former active duty and reserve members who are no longer required to participate in military activities until ordered by the president. Essentially, junior enlisted officers who have an obligation after leaving their service once their contract has expired, the Gateway Pundit reported.
The Washington Examiner noted the U.S. provided over $40 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion 18 months ago.
Last year, the administration increased troop presence in Europe by 20,000 soldiers as a response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, bringing the total U.S. force on the continent to about 100,000 troops and growing.
Meanwhile, nearly 600,000 migrants crossed the U.S. border since Biden entered office.
