President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an order allowing the Pentagon to call up 3,000 military reservists and send them to Europe to support 80,000 troops already there.
Ostensibly, the reservists would be tasked with preventing further Russian aggression against Ukraine, although they are not directly fighting on Ukraine's behalf (since that would make the U.S. a target of Russian aggression and potentially start World War III).
A good number of the reservists that could be called up are from the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR)--soldiers near the end of their enlistment contracts who are no longer required to attend drills and training.
“These authorities will enable the department to better support and sustain its enhanced presence and level of operations,” Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, the director for operations on the Joint Staff, said.
The action “reaffirms the unwavering support and commitment to the defense of NATO’s eastern flank in the wake of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine," he added.
The U.S. has given tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine to help it defend against Russia's invasion, doing everything short of sending actual troops to fight.
Russia has at times questioned the U.S.'s involvement and whether it reaches the level where Russia needs to retaliate against the U.S. directly.
The term "proxy war" has been leveled against the U.S., and it's clear that Biden has tried to walk the line between direct involvement and indirect support.
Most recently, Biden gave Ukraine controversial "cluster bombs" that can explode unpredictably at later dates and cause civilian casualties and injuries.
When questioned about why he did so, Biden said it was because Ukraine was "running out of ammunition" and that the U.S. was also getting low in its supplies.
The admission was decried as giving sensitive intel to our adversaries, who may see now as a good time to attack the U.S. if ammunition supplies are low.
A discussion at the recent NATO summit about whether to allow Ukraine to join NATO ended in a declaration that the nation would be allowed to join when the war was over.
Allowing Ukraine to join while the war was still going on would obligate all NATO nations to join the fight on Ukraine's behalf, causing a world conflict that no one wants to be a part of.
The war has just reached the 500-day mark, with Ukraine attempting a counter-offensive that has been slow to get going so far.
