Shifting an additional 1,000 U.S. troops from Germany, 79-year-old President Joe Biden continues his dangerous game of chicken with 69-year-old President Vladimir Putin. Biden continues to insist that Putin is ready to invade Ukraine, prompting NATO to be on high alert, not knowing what to expect. Sending 2,000 more troops from Fort Bragg, N.C. to Poland and Germany, Pentagon Spokesman john Kirby said the U.S. must send a strong message to Putin. But Putin knows that small troop deployments doesn’t change the facts on the ground in Ukraine, where over 100,000 Russian troops sit in Russian near the Ukraine border. Kirby talks about 8,500 troops on “high alert,” not yet deployed as a deterrent to the Russian Federation. Kirby didn’t say whether or when the 8,500 U.S. troops would get deployment orders. “Prepare to deploy” orders are not the same “deployment” orders.
Biden and his 59-year-old Secretary of State Antony Blinken have offered Putin no concessions on his simple requests, to de-escalate the crisis, to ban Ukraine from NATO membership, and, more importantly, to stop supplying offensive and defensive weapons to Ukraine. Blinken insists the U.S. gave Putin in writing an “exit lane” to de-fuse the Ukraine crisis but made no concessions on NATO membership or on supplying Ukraine or Eastern European countries more offensive and defensive weapons. Where’s the “diplomatic path forward” when Biden refuses to compromise on some of Putin’s requests? Russia’s U.N. Amb. Vasily Nebenzia said in the U.N. Jan. 31 that the U.S. was “whipping up hysteria” and “provoking escalation” by ignoring Putin’s requests to ban Ukraine from NATO membership and stop supplying Ukraine with offensive and defensive weapons.
French President Emmanuel Marcon. 44, has held three phone calls with Putin over the last week to try to de-fuse the Ukraine situation. Macron plans to meeting Feb. 7 with Putin at the Kremlin, hoping to show the French people he’s worthy of reelection. Macron faces a tough fight with 55-year-old National Rally Party leader Marine Le Pen. Le Pen has criticized Macron for his feckless leadership on the Ukraine crisis, but back in Aug. 2021, the collapse of the $90 billion submarine deal with Australia. Macron hopes his calls and meeting with Putin will increase his credibility with French voters. Le Pen has already started to pick up ground on Macron but she’s tried and failed in the past. When it comes to frenzied attempts at last ditch diplomacy with Putin, it’s certainly given the Russia nleader more clout on the world stage. Biden overplayed his hand, insisting Putin would invade Ukraine in short order.
Biden’s motive is to ride Paul Revere’s horse warning about, in this case, the Russians are coming to Ukarine. But unlike the reality of a British invasion of the U.S. colonies April 19, 1775, Biden has hyped the Russian invasion, brainwashing the public to think an invasion was “imminent.” So when the invasion doesn’t happen, Biden can claim that his “magical chair” game with U.S. troops and threats of crippling economic sanctions stopped Putin from invading. But the truth is Putin has no vested interest in invading Ukraine since he already controls the Crimean Peninsula which he seized March 1, 2014. Western government and the press refuse to acknowledge that a CIA-backed coup Feb. 22, 2014 toppled the Kremlin-backed Kiev government of Viktor Yanukovych, threatening Putin’s Sevastopol naval base. Biden insists that Putin invaded Ukraine out of only naked aggression,
Biden’s minor troops deployments in Eastern Europe have no bearing on whether or not Putin will withdraw his troops near the Ukrainian border. Biden has not, so far, offered Putin and exit lane, because he’s rejected Putin’s simple request to ban Ukraine from NATO membership. NATO’s Secretary Gen. Jens Stoltenberg, set to retire to take over Denmark’s Central Bank at year’s end, has not honored Ukraine’s demand for NATO membership over the last eight years. Nor is there any scenario where NATO’s 30 members have any interest in adding Ukraine and starting WW III. So when it comes to honoring Putin’s simple request to ban Ukraine, Biden has nothing to lose throwing Putin a bone. Ukraine isn’t going to get NATO membership for the foreseeable future. Biden has stubbornly resisted making any concession to Putin, hoping his propaganda-bluff actually works to prevent an invasion.
Biden’s threat of deploying more U.S. troops to Eastern Europe is precisely the kind of gunboat diplomacy that gets nation-states into unnecessary wars. When you think about the strategy of insisting Russia would invade Ukraine, they take credit for when they don’t, it helps no one, only makes a bad situation worse. Putin’s has reasonable requests of the U.S. and NATO to stop escalating the conflict by supplying NATO countries with more weapons and troops. If Putin invades Ukraine, it’s going to be to disarm Ukraine from the massive amount of weapons supplied by the U.S. and NATO in recent months. What does Biden do then, when Putin has no interest in occupying Ukraine, only ridding Ukraine of offensive and defensive weapons? Kirby insists the Pentagon deployments are “designed to respond to the current security environment,” something, as Putin says, was created by the U.S.
