"Poland, NATO and US troops all train and exercise with Ukrainian military and intelligence services as part of the long campaign since before 2014 to admit Ukraine into NATO," says retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defence. "Biden probably repeated what he had been briefed prior to his visit to Poland."
On Monday, Joe Biden was questioned by Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy about what the president meant by telling American troops stationed in Poland: "You’re going to see when you’re there, and some of you have been there, you’re gonna see — you’re gonna see women, young people standing in the middle — in front of a damned tank just saying, ‘I’m not leaving, I’m holding my ground.'" The remarks were perceived by some as revealing Washington's plans to put US boots in Ukraine. The White House hastily specified that this wasn't the case.
However, while answering Doocy's question, the US president said: "We were talking about helping train the troops in — that are — the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland." This clearly contradicted US National Security Adviser Jack Sullivan's statement that the US was not training Ukrainian soldiers.
General Tod Wolters, Commander of the United States European Command and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, asserted to the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the US was not training Ukrainian troops in Poland. However, some US lawmakers alleged that Biden spilled the beans about a "classified" Pentagon mission.
"It certainly sounds like something the US would do, taking advantage of the open border between western Ukraine and Poland to not just deliver weapons to Ukrainian forces, but to train Ukrainians in the use of those weapons," says Dave Lindorff, investigative journalist, Editor of the online publication ThisCantBeHappening.net.
Biden's words do not seem to be a mere "gaffe," believes geopolitical analyst Tom Luongo. He cites the fact that the rhetoric of the Biden State Department and National Security Council has recently become very aggressive. "Biden, even if he’s momentarily cogent, could easily just be relaying echoes of previous conversations," says Luongo.
'Washington Not Interested in Diplomatic Resolution'
The US president has recently made a series of bellicose gaffes, including calling the Russian president a "war criminal" and claiming that Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power." Moscow denounced Biden's words as highly inappropriate and reminded him that it's the Russian people who choose their president, not foreign leaders.
"Joe Biden has been remarkably frank in his language about war, conflict and regime change in Russia, and elsewhere," says Karen Kwiatkowski. "The degree of panic seen among his foreign policy and security staff may indicate that he has actually blurted out something from Top Secret Pentagon or CIA presentations."
Ukrainian troops being 'trained' to handle their heavy machinegun by a Polish instructor, March 2017
© Photo : Sgt. Anthony Jones (US Army)/Ukrainian Defence Ministry
Judging from the US commander-in-chief's rhetoric, Washington is seeking a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian crisis in words only, according to the observers.
"I don't think the US is interested in a diplomatic resolution," says Dave Lindorff. "For the US, the longer the conflict goes on, the better. It gets back to the late Polish-American National Security advisor Zbignew Brzezinski who wanted to use the Mujahadeen to make Afghanistan into the Soviet Union's 'Vietnam' and to "kill as many Russians as possible.' Same now in Ukraine. [Secretary of State Antony] Blinken is kind of a low-wattage reincarnation of Brzezinski."
Meanwhile, Biden's gaffes are fraught with the risk of exacerbating Russo-American tensions: according to the New York Post, "it is not clear whether Russia would view the US training Ukraine’s military as a[n]… escalation."
"One can only assume it makes [Biden] sound 'tough' to the American politicians and citizens who support the Ukrainian military. As a person who supports a ceasefire and peace talks, I find his comments disturbing," notes Ron Jacobs, US author and analyst.
U.S. Marines participate in a military exercise called "Cold Response 2022", gathering around 30,000 troops from NATO member countries plus Finland and Sweden, near Bjerkvik in the Arctic Circle, Norway, March 24, 2022.
© REUTERS / BART BIESEMANS
Extended War in Eastern Ukraine
It can't be ruled out that the Biden administration and its security advisers are mulling over all options, including sending US troops to Ukraine, according to Kwiatkowski.
"For decades, the US government has proven to be very willing to send young men and women off to kill other young men and women, and destroy cultural, political and physical environments - if it can get away with it politically," she says. "The fact that the US and Western pro-Ukraine propaganda campaigns have been so powerful, so well-funded, and so early in the game indicates to me that the US government would like, and is hoping for, an extended war in Eastern Europe."
The Biden administration might send American soldiers to fight overseas under some "proper" pretext, believes Tom Luongo: "So scan the British press carefully for signs of what type of false flag they and the US intelligence services will cook up to sell us into yet another disgusting and vile war," the geopolitical analyst remarks.
On 23 March, the New York Times reported that "the White House has quietly assembled a team of national security officials" to consider various Ukraine crisis scenarios including "a joint military response" if Russia used "unconventional" weapons.
"At the soldier level, the idea of fighting a successful nuclear war has not gained the popularity it has back in the Pentagon E-Ring," says Kwiatkowski. "I suspect, from the looks on the faces of US troops dining with Biden in Poland a few days ago, that they have not actually been consulted about either fighting the Russian Army, or being in the arena of a potential nuclear battlefield."
The retired Pentagon analyst laments the fact that following the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, "the US government and its cronies" appear to be "working frantically to create a new long, tragic, and costly war in Ukraine."