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This is disturbing and alarming — Biden issued an order activating up to 3000 Ready Reserve and Select Reserve military personnel and sending them to Europe for potential combat with Russia. This is not a hoax. It is on the White House website:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility. In furtherance of this operation, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, as they deem necessary, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.
Operation Atlantic Resolve is the name for the U.S. military response to Russia’s Special Military Operation. While the number of troops being activated and deployed is not large, is Biden making a direct threat to Russia that is likely to elicit a very unpleasant response from Putin.
In terms of bolstering U.S. military capabilities this is a nothing-burger. But it is the symbolism and the thinking behind this decision that is frightening. But this is not all.
According to one of my retired CIA buddies, at least two B-52s are on the ground at an U.S. Air Force in Alaska. This is highly unusual, according to another old friend who flew B-52s. Moving these planes forward to Alaska is stupid saber rattling. This is not going to assuage Russian concerns about Western intentions, it is going to move the Russians to hair-trigger status.
And do not forget about U.S. plans to send nuclear capable F-16s to Ukraine:
Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov wasted no time in warning the United States and NATO that if the F-16s arrive in theater, Russia will treat them as a potential nuclear threat:
Russian FM Lavrov: The US and its NATO satellites create the risk of a direct armed conflict with Russia, and this is fraught with catastrophic consequences.
Just one example of an extremely dangerous development is the US plans to transfer F-16 fighter jets to the Kyiv regime. We have informed the nuclear powers, the United States, Britain and France, that Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons.
No assurances will help here. In the course of hostilities, our military will not sort out whether each specific aircraft of the specified type is equipped for the delivery of nuclear weapons or not. The very fact of the appearance of such systems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be considered by us as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere. The aggressive steps of unfriendly states create an existential threat for Russia. There is no doubt about this. We will have to defend our right to free and sovereign development with all available means.
I think Lavrov makes it very clear that Russia will destroy those planes “with all available means.” If faced with a nuclear threat Russia will respond in kind. Biden ratcheting up tensions with Russia at the very moment that Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield are catastrophic. Instead of seeking to de-escalate the war and find an off-ramp, Biden and his team appear intent on provoking a nuclear war.
Here is an interview I did with Stephen Gardner. We did not know about what I have just presented. Might have been a very different podcast.
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Larry C Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998. Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years. He has been vilified by the right and the left, which means he must be doing something right. You can also follow him on telegram (t.me/sonar https://t.me/sonar_21, Patreon and Substack https://larrycjohnson.substack.com)
Featured image is from Geopolitical Economy Report
