Two bombshell reports by the Associated Press and Washington Post Monday and Tuesday for the first time have confirmed that the United States has boots on the ground in the Ukraine conflict. Crucially, these troops are performing tasks separate from mere embassy security. The Pentagon says an American “defense attaché” of military personnel is on the ground in the Ukraine.
Under the command of Brig. Gen. Garrick Harmon, the military operation conducted along with Office of Defense Cooperation operating out of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev will inspect American taxpayer-funded weaponry supplied to the Ukrainians, the Defense Department said. Several inspections already have taken place, a senior defense official said at a briefing.
Don Bolduc, a retired U.S. Army brigadier general who is running for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, said in an interview Tuesday the boots on the ground is “a very concerning sign, because that’s how it starts.”
“Not having a plan, allowing something like this to happen, because we have weak foreign policy across the board, with our military leadership, our State Department, the B team over there in the White House, the National Security Council staff – they have absolutely no idea what they’re doing,” he said on Glenn Beck’s radio show.
Hear Bolduc’s remarks:
Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General and Senate candidate @GenDonBolduc tells me Biden deploying the 101st Airborne near Ukraine’s border is a “VERY concerning sign…the first step to dipping our toe into putting boots on the ground, which is where none of us want to go.”
Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General and Senate candidate @GenDonBolduc tells me Biden deploying the 101st Airborne near Ukraine's border is a "VERY concerning sign…the first step to dipping our toe into putting boots on the ground, which is where none of us want to go." pic.twitter.com/cdh8aWg7aO
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) October 25, 2022
The senior official confirmed that U.S. personnel “have recently resumed on-site inspections to assess weapon stocks in country whenever and wherever the security conditions allow.”
One intelligence source told CNN in April that these weapons disappear “into a big black hole” once they enter the country. The anonymous Pentagon official told journalists that Kiev has been “transparent,” and has cooperated with inspectors thus far.
While Americans have fought and died in Ukraine of their own accord, Monday’s announcement marks the first time since February that Washington has acknowledged the presence of uniformed troops in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cautioned the US and its NATO allies against getting involved in the conflict, and even before the announcement, he stated that the Kremlin views itself as fighting the “entire Western military machine” in Ukraine.
In February, President Biden promised: “Our forces are not and will not be engaged in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine. Our forces are not going to Europe to fight in the Ukraine but to defend our NATO Allies and reassure those Allies in the east.”
A month later, the White House walked back Biden’s suggestion to U.S. troops in neighboring Poland that they were going to the Ukraine.
Like with Syria before, it’s likely the White House and Pentagon will carefully avoid acknowledging wording like “boots on the ground” in their press statements…
Oh wow… US boots on the ground in Ukraine? Delivering solutions to problems you created in the first place… so you can create more problems and bring more “solutions…” Rinse, repeat.
Oh wow… US boots on the ground in Ukraine? Delivering solutions to problems you created in the first place… so you can create more problems and bring more "solutions…" Rinse, repeat. https://t.co/zbQpsid5LK
— Alex (Sasha) Krainer (@NakedHedgie) November 1, 2022
The initiative is broadly being seen as part of Biden admin efforts to assuage Republican anger in Congress, after complaints have grown louder over the unaccountable “wild West” way in which Pentagon weapons have proliferated in Ukraine – as even CNN months ago underscored.
This week Finland has been among the first European countries to document the spread of West-supplied weaponry outside of Ukraine’s borders and into the hands of criminal elements, as we detailed previously. “Weapons shipped [by various countries] to Ukraine have also been found in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands,” Finland’s federal National Bureau of Investigation chief Christer Ahlgren was quoted by national broadcaster Yle as saying.
Russia has already long warned it will attack foreign weapons shipments, transport convoys, and warehouses found in Ukraine… but how long before Russian forces target American military inspectors on the ground behind the front lines? The longer the grinding conflict drags on, the greater potential for such a disastrous scenario, whether intentional or not.
While at this point we could rightly call the Ukraine conflict a “proxy war” between Russia and US-NATO, all signs point to a steady slide into direct conflict. Now that Pentagon “inspectors” are confirmed on the ground in Ukraine (notably without any Congressional vote), expect the White House to vehemently deny that this marks any level of an escalation as far as Washington’s direct involvement… again, despite the evident danger of American soldiers placed in “harm’s way” – potentially being under Russian bombs.