Deploying the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to Romania for the first time in 80 years, the Pentagon sends a loud message to 70-year-old Russian President Vladimir Putin that the U.S. is ready to join its NATO partners to defend every inch of NATO territory. Nicknamed the “Screaming Eagles,” the light infantry division is ready to deploy in any combat situation necessary should Russia cross the line and attack a NATO country. How ironic that NATO considers Ukraine a perfect candidate for admission based on specific criteria for membership, including a democrat form of government, yet refuses to supply Ukraine with ground troops or a no-fly-zone demanded by 44-year-old Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky. Despite all of Zelensky’s appeals for U.S. and NATO troops, not a single NATO country, out of 30 members, volunteered troops or a no-fly-zone.
Over the last eight months of war, Zelensky has lost 25% of Ukraine’s sovereign territory to the Kremlin, especially strategic area and ports along the Black Sea coast. Zelensky’s current counteroffensive wants to retake Kherson, the port city seized by Putin in the first month of the war. Zelensky has been playing catch up, hoping to reclaim lost Ukrainian territory around the Black Sea coast. How long that will take with Russian troops firmly imbedded in the area is anyone’s guess. Russian ran the war out of the Crimean Peninsula the strategic coast area seized by Putin March 1, 2024, after a Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup toppled the pro-Kremlin government of Viktor Yanukoych. Putin hosted the Socchi Winter Olympics at the time of the CIA-backed pro-Western coup. Kiev knew there would be consequences for seizing Kiev, threatening Putin’s Sevastopol, Crimea naval base.
Western government and the press say that Putin seized Crimea illegally March 1, 2014, claiming Russia illegally annexed the area by holding a bogus referendum asking Russian-speakers if they wished to join Russia. Crimea was part of Russia until Soviet Premier deeded the territory in 1954 to Ukraine, a Soviet satellite at the time. Once Ukraine declared its independence—and open hostility–to the Russian Federation it was a matter of time before the Kremlin wanted the territory back. Then came the Feb. 22, 2014 CIA-backed coup that chased Yanukovych from Kiev. When told by the Western press, Putin simply illegally seized Crimea in a colonial land grab. Putin realized that with Kiev falling to the U.S., his Sevastopol naval base was threatened by the new Kiev government. Eight years later Russia and Ukraine have fought a deadly war in the Donbass region to liberate pro-Russian territory.
So when it comes to Putin’s seizure of the Crimea, the story is more nuanced than given by Western governments and news outlets. Planting the 101st Airborne in Romania, a country adjacent to Ukraine, has little practical effect on Putin’s mission in Ukraine. Pentagon officials have said they have not intent of supplying ground troops or a no-fly-zone to Ukraine because 70-year-old President Joe Biden says it would start WW III. Zelensky disagrees with Biden, saying that the Ukraine War already started WW III on the European Continent. Zelensky says what difference does it make about WW III when Ukraine is already living in the nightmare battling the Russian Federation. No Western leader or news source admits that Biden has paid Ukraine to fight a proxy war against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden and Zelensky think they’ll force Putin into a humiliating defeat.
Holding drills close to the Ukrainian border in Romania, the 101st Airborne is designed to intimidate Putin but actually has the opposite effect. Putin knows that the U.S. and NATO refuses to put skin in the fight but seeks a return to the peace table at the earliest possible time. Biden and Zelensky want no part of any peace talks until Ukraine captures back all its lost territory. Many war experts and industrialists like 51-year-old Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Mush thin Zelensky will have to make concessions to Putin to end the war. Musk was told to “F-Off” by Ukraine’s German ambassador, attesting to Ukraine’s plans with 100% U.S. financial backing to beat the Russian Federation. Musk underestimated that Zelensky and his military team won’t give up the fight with Russia until they get their sovereign territory back. Musk talked only of territory not controlled by Kiev before the Feb. 24 war began.
Sending U.S. troops to Romania accomplishes nothing, other than giving Romania some reassurance from a Russia invasion. “The real meaning for me, to have the American troops here, is like if you want to leave allies in Normandy before any enemy was there,” said Maj. Gen. Lulian Berdia, referring to the WW II battle with the Germans for Normandy. Biden and Zelensky has stretched the war against the Russian Federaiton beyond any practical value. If Biden wants to stop the carnage and destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure, he’ll seriously consider moving the conflict from the battlefield to the peace talks. Zelensky wants every inch of Ukrainian territory back before he goes to the peace table with Putin. If Congress changes hands in the Nov. 8 Midterm election, Biden may watch a GOP-controlled Congress cut his funding to Ukraine. Biden has spent eight months trying to beat Putin.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
