{"id":203922,"date":"2022-01-31T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=203922"},"modified":"2022-01-25T04:17:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T04:17:23","slug":"white-house-discusses-plans-to-send-up-to-50000-troops-to-eastern-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/01\/white-house-discusses-plans-to-send-up-to-50000-troops-to-eastern-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"White House Discusses Plans to Send up to 50,000 Troops to Eastern Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>24 Jan 2022 &#8211; <\/em>Yesterday evening, the <em>New York Times<\/em> reported that the Biden administration is discussing plans to deploy thousands or tens of thousands of troops to the borders of Russia and Ukraine. Despite the Biden administration\u2019s threadbare attempt to present this as a defense of Ukrainian sovereignty against Russia, it is apparent that Washington is preparing a military escalation aiming to provoke Russia, a major nuclear power, into a war.<\/p>\n<p>Biden apparently discussed plans with Pentagon strategists to deploy 1,000 to 5,000 troops to Romania and the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This could be increased up to tenfold, to 50,000 troops. This comes after Washington announced plans to provide the Ukrainian government with armaments to build bases for missile systems that could launch strikes on Moscow in a matter of a few minutes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_203927\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/US-tanks-pentagon-military-ukraine-Antwerp-Belgium.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-203927\" class=\"wp-image-203927\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/US-tanks-pentagon-military-ukraine-Antwerp-Belgium-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/US-tanks-pentagon-military-ukraine-Antwerp-Belgium-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/US-tanks-pentagon-military-ukraine-Antwerp-Belgium-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/US-tanks-pentagon-military-ukraine-Antwerp-Belgium-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/US-tanks-pentagon-military-ukraine-Antwerp-Belgium.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-203927\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">US tanks are unloaded in Antwerp, Belgium to take part in the Atlantic Resolve military exercises. (AP Photo\/Francisco Seco)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The <em>New York Times<\/em>\u2019 story on the report acknowledged that this would be a \u201cmajor pivot for the Biden administration \u2026 moving away from its do-not-provoke strategy.\u201d It also cited calls for a former top Pentagon planning official, Jim Townsend, calling for a massive military build-up across Europe predicated on the assumption that war with Russia would erupt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s likely too little too late to deter Putin,\u201d Townsend claimed. \u201cIf the Russians do invade Ukraine in a few weeks, those 5,000 [US soldiers] should be just a down payment for a much larger US and allied force presence. Western Europe should once again be an armed camp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday, Washington ordered US diplomats\u2019 families and advised US citizens to leave Ukraine, \u201cdue to the continued threat of Russian military action,\u201d a measure usually taken if war is imminent.<\/p>\n<p>US Colonel Alexander Vindman, an officer involved in top-level talks between Washington and the Ukrainian regime, bluntly spelled out US calculations yesterday. Calling for provocative NATO weapons deliveries to Ukraine, directly on Russia\u2019s border, Vindman told MSNBC: \u201cThese things are already moving. It\u2019s almost certain that this is going to occur, and now is the time to take those last-minute steps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Declaring that NATO is \u201calmost locked into a course of action,\u201d Vindman endorsed plans for war with Russia. He said, \u201cWhy is this important to the American public? It\u2019s important because we\u2019re about to have the largest war in Europe since World War II. There\u2019s going to be a massive deployment of air power, long-range artillery, cruise missiles, things that we haven\u2019t seen unfold on the European landscape more than 80 years, and it is not going to be a clean or sterile environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside data-track-content=\"true\" data-content-name=\"33% of article\" data-content-piece=\"\/en\/articles\/2022\/01\/24\/nato-j24.html\"><\/aside>\n<p>The pretext on which this war is being launched\u2014that NATO is defending Ukrainian democracy and national sovereignty\u2014is a fraud. The far-right Ukrainian regime in Kiev was installed by a US- and German-backed putsch in February 2014 that toppled a pro-Russian government. Since then, Washington and the other NATO powers have been systematically moving to arm Ukraine as a base for operations against Russia. These plans are now being dramatically escalated.<\/p>\n<p>Today, NATO is beginning war games in the Mediterranean, \u201cNeptune Strike 22,\u201d that will last until February 4, involving the aircraft carrier USS Harry Truman. US defense department spokesman John Kirby on Friday claimed it had nothing to do with \u201cscenarios\u201d that \u201ccould play out with regard to Ukraine.\u201d However, he then made clear the exercise aims to threaten Moscow over Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Russia\u2019s positioning of troops on Russian soil near the Ukrainian border, he said, \u201ccontinues to be concerning \u2026 We\u2019re going to make sure that we have options ready to reassure our allies, particularly on NATO\u2019s eastern flank. If there\u2019s another incursion and if they need that reassurance, if they need the capabilities to be bolstered, we\u2019re going to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neptune 22 is one of a series of NATO war games surrounding Russia with vast forces. On February 20, the \u201cDynamic Manta 22\u201d anti-submarine exercise in the Mediterranean will begin, and on February 22 the \u201cDynamic Guard\u201d exercise in Norway. This will transition into Cold Response 2022. The largest Norwegian-led military maneuver since the 1980s is to involve 35,000 troops from 26 nations, including 14,000 soldiers, 13,000 seamen, as well as 8,000 air force personnel and staff. The first troops are reportedly already on site and have begun exercises.<\/p>\n<p>NATO claims that Russia is driving this confrontation are absurd on their face. It is denouncing Russia for having troops located on its own soil, while it is sending NATO troops and lethal weaponry up to Russia\u2019s borders. A substantial faction of the ruling elite in the NATO countries is pushing for a war with Russia, speculating about Russian intentions while fabricating accusations in order to concoct a case for war.<\/p>\n<p>The British government, reeling from a scandal over Prime Minister Boris Johnson\u2019s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, launched a further provocation against Moscow yesterday. On Saturday, UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss and the British Foreign Office released a statement accusing Moscow of preparing a coup to install a pro-Russian regime in Kiev. This charge, for which London released no evidence, was a provocation that fell apart under the weight of its own incoherence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have information that indicates the Russian government is looking to install a pro-Russian leader in Kyiv as it considers whether to invade and occupy Ukraine. The former Ukrainian MP Yevhen Murayev is being considered as a potential candidate,\u201d Truss declared.<\/p>\n<p>Truss\u2019 statement continued: \u201cThe information being released today shines a light on the extent of Russian activity designed to subvert Ukraine, and is an insight into Kremlin thinking. \u2026 As the UK and our partners have said repeatedly, any Russian military incursion into Ukraine would be a massive strategic mistake with severe costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside data-track-content=\"true\" data-content-name=\"66% of article\" data-content-piece=\"\/en\/articles\/2022\/01\/24\/nato-j24.html\"><\/aside>\n<p>This claim was soon discredited: Murayev, the supposed leader of London\u2019s hypothetical coup, pointed out that he faces a state ban in Russia and his assets there have been seized. \u201cYou\u2019ve made my evening. The British Foreign Office seems confused,\u201d he told Britain\u2019s <em>Observer<\/em>. \u201cIt isn\u2019t very logical. I\u2019m banned from Russia. Not only that but money from my father\u2019s firm there has been confiscated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, the US National Security Council embraced this claim to again denounce Russia. Its spokeswoman, Emily Horne, said, \u201cthis kind of plotting is deeply concerning. The Ukrainian people have the sovereign right to determine their own future, and we stand with our democratically-elected partners in Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Russian foreign ministry, for its part, denied the story. \u201cThe spread of disinformation by the British foreign ministry,\u201d it declared, \u201cis one more piece of evidence that NATO countries, led by the Anglo-Saxons, are escalating tensions around Ukraine. We call on the British foreign ministry to stop its provocative activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The campaign is not only a continuation of US-NATO interventions against Russian allies in Ukraine and in Syria, where NATO has fought a decade-long proxy war. It is also a reckless attempt to deal with internal class and social tensions that are reaching explosive levels as the world enters the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Desperation increasingly dominates the calculations of major capitalist governments.<\/p>\n<p>The NATO powers as well as the post-Soviet capitalist kleptocracy in Russia have all imposed a disastrous policy of \u201cliving with the virus\u201d on the working class. There have been over 2 million COVID-19 deaths in the NATO states and over 326,000 in Russia. Last week alone saw over 13 million new cases and 28,000 COVID-19 deaths in NATO, and at least 270,000 cases and 4,799 deaths in Russia. Yet governments across the region are ending public health measures to restrict the contagion and instead allow the virus to spread even faster.<\/p>\n<p>Since the year began, mass protests and strikes have erupted against official pandemic policies in the United States, Greece, France and Italy. It is clear that, as they seek to impose further policies of mass infection and death upon rising working class opposition, the major imperialist powers are accelerating a turn towards militarism, police-state rule and wars that could threaten millions or billions of lives.<\/p>\n<p>To prevent the ruling class from plunging the planet into the abyss, the growing opposition among workers and youth internationally must be mobilized based on a socialist perspective in a movement to oppose war and to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Control over the resources of society must be taken out of the hands of an irresponsible and historically condemned ruling elite. This requires the revolutionary mobilization of the working class against the capitalist system.<\/p>\n<p>_________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Johannes-Stern.png\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-203924 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Johannes-Stern-e1643083448468.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"90\" height=\"90\" \/><\/a>Johannes Stern is the deputy editor of the German-language edition of the <\/em>World Socialist Web Site<em> and a leading member of the Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) in Germany.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2022\/01\/24\/nato-j24.html\" >Go to Original &#8211; wsws.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>24 Jan 2022 &#8211; Yesterday the New York Times reported that the Biden administration is discussing plans to deploy tens of thousands of troops to the borders of Russia and Ukraine. Despite the administration\u2019s threadbare attempt to present this as a defense of Ukrainian sovereignty against Russia, it is apparent that Washington is preparing a military escalation aiming to provoke Russia, a major nuclear power, into a war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":203927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[207],"tags":[232,1061,1268,1126,1050,91,278,961,70,1594,481,172,2534],"class_list":["post-203922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-balkans-eastern-europe","tag-capitalism","tag-cold-war-ii","tag-european-union","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-ukraine","tag-usa","tag-war-economy","tag-warfare","tag-west","tag-wwiii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}