The White House said Friday that the 3,000 reservists President Biden has made available for the Pentagon to deploy to Europe would serve “administrative” functions.
“These are people that are specialists in things like administrative functions, logistics, supply, maybe medical, dental, those kinds of things,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told Fox News. “The kind of enabling functions that you need to support and sustain a large troop presence for a long time.”
President Biden signed the executive order to support Operation Atlantic Resolve, the name for US military operations in Europe that are a response to events in Ukraine. The mission was first established in 2014 after the US-backed ousting of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych led to Russia annexing Crimea and the civil war in the Donbas region.
Since February 2022, the US has deployed over 20,000 additional troops to Europe, bringing US troop levels on the continent to over 100,000 for the first time since 2005. President Biden’s order suggests that the US military is strained by maintaining a large troop presence in Europe.
Out of the 3,000 reservists, up to 450 could be pulled from what is known as Individual Ready Reserve (IRR). People in the IRR have previously served active duty but have a reserve commitment they need to fulfill as part of their contract. “In essence, they are now civilians,” a retired Army Reserve general told The War Zone.
“They do not own uniforms, they do not have units, they do not take physical fitness tests, they don’t take physical examinations, they are just like you and me doing their day-to-day jobs thinking that their military time is behind them,” the retired general added.
President Biden’s order came after he was in Europe for a NATO summit in Lithuania, where the alliance vowed to further beef up its “eastern flank,” which refers to eastern European countries that border Russia and Ukraine. The US is also looking to gain a foothold in Finland, NATO’s newest member that shares an over 800-miles border with Russia.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) criticized President Biden’s order and the overall US military buildup in Europe. “Not only does this run the risk of further locking us into supporting Ukraine, now the military-industrial complex will say the US military presence is THE one thing preventing Russia from crossing NATO’s eastern border & that we have to maintain such presence indefinitely,” he wrote on Twitter.
Source: AntiWar.
