Joe Biden going ahead with US troops to Eastern Europe as some Americans and allies balk


WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said on Friday he will deploy American troops to Eastern Europe sometime « in the near term » even as he struggled to keep NATO allies and skeptics at home on the same page in the ongoing face-off with Russia over Ukraine.
The US President is failing even to build a domestic consensus in the stand-off against Russia, with many Trump Republicans saying he is exaggerating the threat from Moscow at the expense of the threat from China, while implicitly supporting Russian stand on Ukraine.
« Ukraine is primarily a European issue to solve…Instead of being bogged down in a non-NATO European issue, we should (be) recognizing China as the preeminent emergent threat to America, » Lt Gen Kellogg, a Trump administration national security mandarin said in a commentary amid a perceptible lack of enthusiasm among Americans for any foreign deployment after the debacle on Afghanistan.
« Perhaps the most troubling aspect of Putin’s efforts is how effectively he drags Biden deeper into Russia’s priorities and away from the top national security issue that matters most to Americans and should be top of Biden’s mind: The rising and increasingly emboldened threat of China, » he added.
But Biden pressed ahead with the proposed deployment, apparently in an effort to deter Russia from invading Ukraine, something his commanders say is imminent. « I’ll be moving troops to Eastern Europe and the NATO countries in the near term, » the US President said, adding, « Not too many. »
The postscript was evidently aimed at assuring Americans that the US will not get bogged down in another foreign intervention and the deployment is meant only to deter Russia.
But the Biden move was undercut by Ukraine, the purported victim country. It complained of alarmism on part of Washington and some of its allies, saying they were causing needless panic with their projections of imminent Russian invasion. “I am the President of Ukraine. I am based here. I think I know the details better,” the country’s President Voldymyr Zelensky said in Kyiv, rubbishing reports of imminent war. American journalists are making a beeline to Ukraine and its frontier war to report on yet another war in the making.
Biden is also having to contend with lukewarm support from some NATO allies who analysts say are dependent on Russia for their energy needs. A notable case is Germany, which reportedly did not allow the United Kingdom to use its airspace to fly military aid to Ukraine.
But the biggest problem for Biden is domestic politics, with militarists on both sides of the aisle urging him to stand up to Russia, and Trump Republicans, now seen as foreign policy outliers, virtually arguing Russia’s case in Ukraine.
Influential Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who openly echoes Russia’s talking points, says he doesn’t care if he is seen as Putin’s pawn: The United States should care about its own borders and not that of Russia or Ukraine.



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