Biden slammed for comments about US military readiness
Jack Birle
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President Joe Biden is being criticized for comments he made on the U.S. military’s readiness when discussing shipping cluster mutations to Ukraine amid the war with Russia.
Biden said the Ukrainians are running low on ammunition, but he also confirmed that the United States is low while speaking in an interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS that aired Sunday. Biden’s comment was met with scrutiny, including from some congressional Republicans, who argued that aiding Ukraine was harming national security.
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“The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition. The ammunition that they used to call them 155 mm weapons. This is a war relating to munitions, and they are running out of that ammunition and we’re low on it. And so what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to, not permanently, but to allow for in this transition period where we have more 155 weapons, these shells for the Ukrainians, to provide them with something that has a very low dud rate. It’s about — I think it’s 1.50, which is the least likely to be blown,” Biden said in the interview.
The Department of Defense has previously said that the U.S. will not go below “readiness levels” in its assistance to Ukraine, but also has said that the U.S. is “in it for the long haul” when it comes to helping Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“We’re not going to dip below our readiness levels and we continue to assess our readiness levels with each, whether it’s a presidential drawdown package or security assistance that we announce. Our goal is to make sure that we are setting up Ukraine for this enduring war that Russia started in February. And we’re in it for the long haul,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said in a press briefing in November 2022.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) called the statement from Biden a “stunning admission.”
“In this interview is a stunning admission from Biden, something I’ve been warning about for over a year: He says the Ukrainians are running low on 155mm artillery shells, and so are we. The Ukraine war is a massive drain on our national security,” Vance said in a tweet.
“Biden just admitted we’re low on artillery ammunition. We cannot be sending any more to Ukraine. America comes first,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) said in a tweet.
“Joe Biden broadcasting to the world that the US is low on 155mm shells. Moron. Does Biden not care that our adversaries in China are listening?” Conservative commentator Steve Guest said in a tweet.
Others online criticized Biden for providing Ukraine with cluster munitions, which several countries have banned. In the interview on CNN, the president said the munitions would not be used in civilian areas and that “it was not an easy decision” to send them to Ukraine.
“It’s not used in civilian areas. They’re trying to get through those trenches and stop those tanks from rolling. And so — but it was not an easy decision. And it’s not — we’re not signatories of that agreement. But I — it took me a while to be convinced to do it. But the main thing is they either have the weapons to stop the Russians now from their — keeping them from stopping the Ukrainian offensive through these areas, or they don’t. And I think they needed them,” Biden said.
Several denounced the weapons being provided to Ukraine in the war, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) accusing the Biden administration of being “obsessed with funding and fueling war and death in foreign lands instead of actively negotiating peace.”
“The Biden administration sending cluster munitions to Ukraine may be a war crime. These are dangerous weapons banned by Congress. It is an accelerated aggression that will kill many people. Shame on our leaders that are obsessed with funding and fueling war and death in foreign lands instead of actively negotiating peace,” Greene said in a tweet.
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The interview came ahead of Biden’s trip to Europe, where he will meet with King Charles III in the United Kingdom before going to a NATO meeting in Lithuania.
Several NATO nations have expressed their disagreements with the U.S. providing Ukraine with cluster munitions, as many of the other NATO countries are part of a convention that prohibits the use, production, transfer, and stockpiling of cluster munitions.