When In Doubt, Send Troops
W.J. Astore
On that proverbial table in Washington D.C. where all options are allegedly kept, the one option that's always used is military escalation. First, the U.S. sent more weaponry to Ukraine. Now, America's commander-in-chief is sending more troops, according to this news update today from the Boston Globe:
President Biden is sending about 2,000 troops from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to Poland and Germany this week and sending part of an infantry Stryker squadron of roughly 1,000 troops based in Germany to Romania, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
The military moves come amid stalled talks with Russia over its military buildup at Ukraine’s borders. And they underscore growing fears across Europe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is poised to invade Ukraine — and smaller NATO countries on the eastern flank worry they could be next.
Has Russia given any sign of invading "smaller NATO countries on the eastern flank"? No matter. The solution is obviously to send small contingents of U.S. troops as a sign of resolve. A couple thousand troops split between Poland and Romania will show Vladimir Putin that America means business. (War business, that is.)
Such small troop contingents have negligible military value, so their real significance is in domestic politics. Biden, a typical Democratic president, is forever on guard against accusations of "weakness" vis-a-vis Russia or China or Iran or you-name-it. To minimize such accusations, while keeping the military-industrial complex happy, the go-to option on the table is to send in the weapons and the troops. Who cares about the risk of military escalation and a wider war between major nuclear powers?
One could imagine a different president, a savvier one, winning major international points by offering to defuse tensions between Ukraine and Russia through negotiation. But that option, farfetched as it would be, is never on that table of options kept in Washington. And why Russia would trust the U.S. is beyond me.
Kyiv (Kiev) in Ukraine is roughly 5500 miles from me by airplane. That's a very long way indeed from what I consider to be my "eastern flank." Maybe America should practice a new foreign policy in which we learn to mind our own business, or, if you prefer, stay in our own backyard?