Poland Continues To Play With Fire

NOTE: I published a post earlier that doesn’t appear to have been emailed out. If you missed it:

Scott Ritter On The Russian Campaign Strategy

---

I just came across an account of another disastrous development from Zhou’s trip to Poland. While much of the world was still agog at the idiocy of Zhou’s espousal of regime change for Russia, at his Don’t Walk Back presser he let drop another bombshell:

Biden Appears to Reveal the US Is Training Ukrainian Troops in Poland

The president made the revelation when trying to explain a recent gaffe

President Biden appeared to reveal on Monday that the US is training Ukrainian troops in Poland.

Biden made the comments when trying to explain a recent gaffe. In Poland on Friday, President Biden told members of the 82nd Airborne Division that Ukrainians were “stepping up” against the Russian assault and said, “You’re going to see when you’re there,” suggesting that the US soldiers would be entering the war zone.

Explaining his comments on Monday, Biden said, “We were talking about helping train the troops in — that are — the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland. That’s what the context.”

“I was referring to with — being with and talking with the Ukrainian troops who are in Poland,” he added.

When asked about Biden’s comments, a White House official told Politico that US troops are “interacting” with Ukrainian soldiers in Poland. “There are Ukrainian soldiers in Poland interacting on a regular basis with US troops, and that’s what the President was referring to,” the official said.

Since 2014, the US has trained Ukrainian forces, both openly and covertly. But since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it hasn’t been clear if any training programs were still taking place. If the US is training Ukrainian troops now, it means they are being trained to kill Russian soldiers in the current conflict.

…

Obviously this isn’t a smart thing for the US to be doing right now—it’s pouring gasoline on a fire. That’s what Neocons like to do. But it’s pretty amazing that Poland should apparently think it’s a good idea to be associated with training Ukrainian troops on Polish soil to kill Russians in an ongoing conflict. If you discount the Bering Strait business, the US and Russia are, geographically, pretty distant. Not so Poland, and of course Poland will always be geographically close to Russia—for better or worse. Putting all their eggs in the US/NATO basket—especially under a Zhou regime—at this juncture seems ill advised. As have several recent Polish actions. Going forward, which history has a way of doing, it’s hard to see what good will come of this for Poland. It’s not as if the US is going to defend Poland should push ever come to shove.