By Jim Geraghty
Tuesday, March
29, 2022
The headline on yesterday’s Jolt: “Biden’s
Ad-Libbing Gets More Dangerous.” Apparently, the president took that as a dare.
President
Joe Biden appeared to reveal that the U.S. is training Ukrainian forces in
Poland — stating for the first time since the war began that American troops
are actively teaching Ukrainians to fight and kill Russians.
That’s not
what Biden said Monday. After delivering remarks about the White House’s new
budget request, Biden answered a reporter’s question about comments he made
when meeting the 82nd Airborne in Poland, in which he implied
American forces would be going to Ukraine. Biden denied that’s what he meant, adding: “We’re talking about helping train the Ukrainian
troops that are in Poland.”
Pressed
again, Biden said, “I was referring to being with, and talking with, the
Ukrainian troops that are in Poland.”
It’s
possible Biden meant to say “American” when he said “Ukrainian” on the second
instance, or he exaggerated the extent to which American soldiers advise the
Ukrainian forces on how to use the security assistance the administration has
provided.
It’s right
there in the White House transcript. As the president would say, “Come on, man!”
The U.S. has trained Ukrainian troops for
a long time, going all the
way back to 1993. The U.S. Seventh Army Training Command
oversaw the Joint Multinational Training
Group-Ukraine mission at the Yavoriv Combat
Training Center, in Ukraine near the Polish border, until February. “Task Force
Gator” — the 53rd Infantry Brigade Combat team from the Florida Army National
Guard — was the last group to train Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian soil. When the
war appeared imminent, U.S. European Command moved Task Force Gator to
Grafenwoehr, Germany. On March 13, the Russians
bombed the Yavoriv Combat Training Center, killing 35 people.
The last Facebook post from the Joint
Multinational Training Group-Ukraine was February 9, about the formation of a recreational sports league among the troops
stationed there.
The war has been going on for 33 days. In
the entirety of that time, no one from the Pentagon, the U.S. State Department,
the White House National Security Council, or any other federal-government
agency has publicly mentioned U.S. training of Ukrainian troops on Polish soil.
(This is separate from American volunteers, and private groups
of American veterans going over into Ukraine and helping
or training the Ukrainians.) When the war began, Secretary of Defense Lloyd
Austin told House lawmakers that “the Biden
administration is considering ways to train Ukrainian forces remotely if the
Russians seize control of Ukraine.”
In fact, six days ago, national-security
adviser Jake Sullivan specifically denied that such training was taking place:
On the question of U.S. troops, we do not have U.S. troops currently
training Ukrainians. We do not have U.S. troops on the
territory of Ukraine. We do, of course, have U.S. troops defending NATO
territory, providing reassurance to our Allies, deterring Russian aggression.
And, of
course, the United States is playing a key role not just in the direct
provision of military equipment to Ukraine but in the facilitation of military
equipment provided by many of our Allies as well.
There is a good reason for the U.S. to
either halt instructing Ukrainian soldiers once the war started or to want to
keep it secret. The Russians have already sent strong signals indicating that
they think NATO sending weapons to the Ukrainians makes the alliance a
combatant; undoubtedly, Putin and the Russian military would interpret the
Pentagon training Ukrainians to kill Russians during a shooting war as another
strong argument to treat the U.S. as a belligerent in the conflict.
And Biden just blurts it out.
The
reality is that we have to live with Mr. Biden for three more years as
President. And please stop writing letters imploring us to demand that Mr.
Biden resign. Do you really want Vice President Kamala Harris in the Oval
Office? She was chosen as a bow to identity politics to unite the Democratic
Party in the election campaign, not for her ability to fill the President’s
shoes. In the last 14 months she has failed to demonstrate even the minimum
knowledge or capacity for the job. We are fated to make the best of the
President we have.
The Wall Street Journal editorial
board — or you, or me — calling for Biden to resign is not going to get Biden
to resign, and they are correct that the prospect of “President Kamala Harris”
does not look like the answer to our problems.
Back in August, after Biden’s erratic
behavior during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, I wrote that
something was wrong with the president and got a lot of grief for writing that. About a month later, under oath before the Senate Armed Services
Committee, the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Frank McKenzie, and
the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Mark Milley, both said they
had recommended that President Biden maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. When asked specifically about this recommendation by George
Stephanopoulos, Biden answered that, “No one said that to me that I can
recall.” I pointed out that it is possible that the septuagenarian Biden
genuinely does not remember what his military advisers recommended a few months
ago, on one of the most consequential decisions of his presidency.
Does Biden remember what he’s told in
briefings that is supposed to be kept secret?
This is consequential. We can shrug
it off when Biden keeps telling not-quite-true stories about riding 2 million
miles on Amtrak; we’re all used to this man telling long,
meandering, self-aggrandizing stories that are no more than distant cousins to
reality. But the stakes in this conflict are far too high for Biden’s tired,
habitual, “Let’s take it outside, Jack, I’m the toughest son-of-a-gun on the
mean streets of Wilmington, just ask Corn Pop” schtick.
This is now part of a pattern in the
crisis in Ukraine:
“It’s one thing if it’s a minor incursion
and then we end up having a fight about what to do and not do, et cetera.”
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in
power!”
Speaking to the 82nd Airborne, about the
Ukrainians, Biden declared, “Look at how they’re stepping up. And you’re going
to see when you’re there.”
Henry Olsen
writes that, “There are two possible ways
to explain Biden’s gaffes. The first is that he is not really running the show
and that statements from his aides are a more accurate reflection of U.S.
policy. The second is that he is running the show, but that he lacks the filter
needed to keep private thoughts private.”
I would say that Biden’s off-the-cuff
bellicosity was ruining any chance at a negotiated settlement to the invasion,
but I think we should recognize that Putin still
doesn’t seem all that interested in a negotiated peace:
Russian
oligarch Roman Abramovich and Ukrainian peace negotiators suffered symptoms of
suspected poisoning after a meeting in Kyiv earlier this month, people familiar
with the matter said. Mr. Abramovich, Ukrainian lawmaker Rustem Umerov and
another negotiator developed symptoms following the March 3 meeting in Kyiv
that included red eyes, constant and painful tearing, and peeling skin on their
faces and hands, the people said. Mr. Abramovich has shuttled between Moscow,
Belarus and other negotiating venues since Russia invaded Ukraine.
When you’re poisoning the peace-deal
negotiator, I don’t think you’re all that interested in a peace deal.
Meanwhile, forget nuclear, chemical, or
biological weapons; the Russian
military seems too reckless and irresponsible to be trusted with conventional
weapons:
As Putin’s
troops drove through the disaster site without radiation protection, they
kicked up clouds of radioactive dust, workers at the site said.
Two
sources said soldiers in the convoy had no protection from the site’s radiation
and another branded it “suicidal”.
As they
rampaged through they kicked radioactive dust that they would have inhaled,
leaving radiation inside their body.
The
Russian convoy drove the most contaminated spot of the site, with one of the
employees saying: “A big convoy of military vehicles drove along a road right
behind our facility and this road goes past the Red Forest.
“The
convoy kicked up a big column of dust. Many radiation safety sensors showed
exceeded levels.”
Sometimes, the Russian army looks like a
group of heavily armed ignorant teenagers.
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