Breaking News: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg announces expansion of force in Iraq from 500 to around 4,000. That’s 3500 more troops to be involved in the middle eastern front. NATO said the training mission will expand “to support Iraqi forces as they fight terrorism and ensure that ISIS does not return”. Quietly approved longer campaigns in the region.
The latest action by the NATO forces is a clear signal about the United States intentions have changed. The change in stand by the US government quite in contrast to what former President Donald Trump did and planned to do. The Donald Trump administration made all the attempts possible to pull out the US troops from many parts of the world. At the same time, Donald Trump increased the US Defence Budget. On 28 September 2018, Trump signed the Department of Defense appropriations bill. The approved 2019 Department of Defense discretionary budget is $686.1 billion. It has also been described as “$617 billion for the base budget and another $69 billion for war funding.”
Donald Trump also focused more on Quality over Quantity. Increased military spending largely serves three possible objectives: better modernization for the future, upgraded unit-by-unit readiness for today. Now these all steroid boosted US military is under the new commander in chief President Joe Biden.
Biden’s War Mongering History with Iraq:
Biden did vastly more than just vote for the war. Yet his role in bringing about that war remains mostly unknown or misunderstood by the public. When the war was debated and then authorized by the US Congress in 2002, Democrats controlled the Senate and Biden was chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favour of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.
“I do not believe this is a rush to war,” Biden said a few days before the vote. “I believe it is a march to peace and security. I believe that failure to overwhelmingly support this resolution is likely to enhance the prospects that war will occur …”
But he had a power much greater than his own words. He was able to choose all 18 witnesses in the main Senate hearings on Iraq. And he mainly chose people who supported a pro-war position. They argued in favour of “regime change as the stated US policy” and warned of “a nuclear-armed Saddam sometime in this decade”. That Iraqis would “welcome the United States as liberators” And that Iraq “permits known al-Qaida members to live and move freely about in Iraq” and that “they are being supported”. The Guardian article said on Biden’s role in the Iraq invasion.
Donald Trump turned the tired-looking US War Machine and turned it into a monster. Just to hand it over to Joe Biden who wage war for no actual validation or reason. The next 4 years going to be a bumpy ride for the weaker nations in the third world. Especially in the gulf and whole of the middle east. Not to forget, Russian angle to all these regions I have mentioned above. During Trump region and his willingness to pull out of these conflict zones have given the Russian President Putin more than enough headroom to make a powerful comeback in Syria militarily and with others diplomatically.
