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Foreign Policy

Biden Mobilizes US Military to Russian Border

“World War 3” trended on Twitter as news spread that President Joe Biden had called up military reservists for deployment in Eastern Europe.

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A.J. Cooke

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“World War 3” trended on Twitter last week as news spread that President Joe Biden had called up military reservists for deployment in Eastern European countries bordering Russia. With the exception of Obama and Trump-era deployments to fight pandemics, every callup of Individual Ready Reserve troops going back to the First Gulf War has either been to support wartime efforts or has immediately preceded a U.S. invasion.

Memes expressing horror and mockery spread across the military blogosphere, with Buffalo Police Officer Richard Hy – an Amy Reservist and drill sergeant who vlogs on YouTube as Angry Cops – suggesting in an “Emergency Meme Review” that the provocative move was intended to address historic shortfalls in military recruiting over the past three years.

The deployment shall not “exceed 3,000 total members at any one time” on top of roughly 100,000 troops already stationed there so, while this does signal a significant escalation in tension for Russo-American relations, it is a proverbial drop in the bucket compared to the roughly 800,000 troops Russia has claimed to have mobilized in addition to the troops already in-theatre.

No more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve. The Individual Ready Reserve refers to former members of the military who are no longer part of active-duty forces or even reservists, but by law may be subject to a compulsory draft back into military service according to the Presidential Reserve Callup Authority in the event of a national emergency. The United States has been in a state of emergency since November 14, 1979, which President Jimmy Carter declared 10 days into the Iran Hostage Crisis.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) offered a critical assessment of the move, where he indicated that the order operated in a legal gray area where the President may temporarily assign troops to a “named operational mission”.

The “named operational mission” in question is Operation Atlantic Resolve, which deployed nearly 20,000 troops to Eastern Europe after a West-backed coup in Ukraine resulted in hostilities with Russian-backed rebels in Crimea and Donbas. Lee condemned the order as “a dangerous provocation”.

Conservatives including former President Donald Trump rushed to make statements condemning the escalation, which they indicated was a dangerous move that increases the likelihood of nuclear war. Others took shots at Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who took the opportunity to expound on the virtues of sustaining the war in Ukraine.

This came on the heels of the disappointing NATO conference in Vilnius which, despite initial reports of significant NATO concessions to guarantee Ukrainian security, produced little more than meme variations of a photo of Ukrainian President Zelensky staring off awkwardly in undecorated military fatigues while world leaders ignore him.

In the lead-up to the underwhelming summit, Biden announced in an interview with CNN that the U.S. and Ukrainian militaries were “running out” of conventional high-caliber artillery shells and, as such, the U.S. would be be supplying cluster munitions instead. All NATO countries put together produced less than 700 artillery shells per day in 2022, while the Ukrainians were consuming between 6,000 and 7,000 rounds per day as of March 2023. By contrast, the Russians are firing between four to ten times as many shells as the Ukrainians, but appear nowhere close to running out; some estimates put Russian production at 10,000 shells per day or more.

This caused much consternation in Western Europe where, as it is in the majority of the world, cluster munitions are strictly banned and their use is considered a crime against humanity. Neither the United States, Ukraine or Russia have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions, however.

Retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, the fiercely-conservative veteran of the Battle of 73 Easting who is widely considered America’s greatest living tactician, explained that cluster munitions were virtually mothballed after their dismal performance in the First Gulf War resulted in numerous incidents of friendly fire with little results to show for it.

According to MacGregor, roughly 20% of the “bomblets” that make up cluster munitions fail to fire in the field, leaving unexploded munitions that have no effect on enemy armor but wreak havoc on friendly troops and “soft” wheeled vehicles advancing behind an armored column. The bomblets’ infamous resemblance to toys also results in horrific injuries or deaths to children who find them long after combat is over.

According to military experts who spoke in detail on the subject, use of cluster munitions in this way only makes sense if the Ukrainians do not intend to advance – only retreat – and do not care about civilian casualties, even children. Alex Cristoforou and Alexander Mercouris, hosts of foreign policy vlog The Duran, speculated that this is an attempt to keep the war on life support until after the 2024 election.

Western supporters of Ukraine have spent months predicting a rout of Russian forces in the “Spring Offensive” which, after many delays, started in early June. In the month and a half since then, virtually no progress has been made while Ukrainian armor has smashed ineffectually against Russian lines defended using well-worn Soviet-era defense-in-depth strategy. Retired U.S. Army artillery officer and fantasy author Tyler Weaver, who posts online as Armchair Warlord and Vampire Six, gave a brutal assessment of NATO’s failure to turn the tide for the Ukrainians with training and weaponry.

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A.J. Cooke
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A.J. Cooke is Cuban-American freelance journalist and ghostwriter based in Northern Virginia. He grew up in Japan, Malaysia and Portugal. His father, Don Cooke, was one of the 1979 Iran Hostages and his grandfather, the late Ambassador Diego Asencio, was held hostage by M-19 guerrillas in the 1980 Bogota Embassy Siege. A veteran political campaigner, fundraiser and ghostwriter, Cooke writes mostly political news with a focus on data science and legal analysis.

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