Impending War? President Biden Orders More U.S. Troops to Europe

While the rest of the world continues to call for diplomacy and negotiations between Russia and the U.S. over the threat of a Russian invasion into Ukraine, the Biden Administration is signaling war. The President has just ordered an additional 3,000 troops to Europe on top of the 8,500 that had previously been ordered.

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst Wes Smith explained how sending more troops is not necessary:

There’s a 40,000 multi-national force – the NATO Response Force – which has not been activated. Our troops that are being sent, are being sent by U.S. orders. NATO has not requested them. I think what he is trying to do is show a force. . . . I think the other thing that is going on in the Administration’s mind is that Germany is such a weak NATO ally, and the countries in the eastern side of Europe . . . they are much more pro-U.S. and very anti-Russia. So, I think he’s sending the troops to Romania and Poland in order to create more unity with our eastern NATO members, trying to cover up and compensate for the fact that Germany is such an unreliable ally. . . . You don’t send combat troops anywhere unless you intend to use them in a combat role.

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby announced troop deployment and gave the following justification:

These movements are unmistakable signals to the world that we stand ready to reassure our NATO allies to deter and defend against any aggression.

Shouldn’t our NATO allies be reassuring us right now? Why are we reassuring them when it’s in their backyard and they have not called up any of their forces?

ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell gave his take on this move by the Biden Administration:

They are moving troops into eastern and central Europe. Think about that. We are pushing diplomacy aside. Let me state one fact. The U.S. ambassador to NATO is a State Department employee. The NATO team reports to the State Department. Yes, they coordinate with the Pentagon, but it is a diplomatic post. It is used to further diplomacy. What I don’t understand is why all of Washington is pushing aside the State Department and beating a drum towards troops on the ground. . . .

We have dismissed the State Department. We have allowed our diplomats to be very weak. When a diplomat is strong and tough and uses diplomacy with muscle, they are mocked as being undiplomatic. I would argue that our diplomats ensure that we don’t have war. You need to have diplomacy with muscle in order to get things done. I will finish with this – why in the world do we not have sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline? The pipeline is not up and running. You want to change the Russians' behavior? Sanction their money pit and their influence, and that is the pipeline.

We’ve already seen a military loss in Afghanistan, and we hope we aren’t about to witness another one in Ukraine. While President Biden is losing internationally, we are winning domestically. In a big moment for religious liberty, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments over a football coach getting fired for praying silently on an empty field after football games. You can read more about the case here.

First Liberty Institute is representing the coach in this case; and our good friend, Chief Counsel of First Liberty Kelly Shackelford joined Sekulow to discuss the case:

We are up to almost seven years of battle here. This one is really unique in that what happened is Coach Kennedy came out of being a Marine for about 20 years. And he watched a movie before he went to coach his first game and it was Facing the Giants about Christians and coaching, and it just convicted him. And he made a pledge to God that after every game that he would go by himself to the center of the field when everyone is talking, he would go down to a knee for 15-20 seconds and say a silent prayer thanking God for the privilege of coaching these young men. And that’s what he did for seven years, until the school came to him and said, if you do that again we are going to fire you. 

He added:

The thing that is really unique about this case, which really makes it what was bad can turn out to be a great thing, is that there has never been a case at the Supreme Court on the rights of teachers or coaches with regard to their faith at the Supreme Court. We have never had that free exercise case. This is going to set a precedent that’s going to help every teacher, every coach, really everybody who works for the government, because their argument in this case is if you work for the government and you do something religious that someone can see, then they can fire you.

This is one of the core issues of the ACLJ. We have been fighting for religious liberty and prayer in schools at the Supreme Court for decades. And we will continue to. We will be filing an amicus brief in defense of Coach Kennedy, prayer, and religious liberty, and oral arguments will be held in April.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of the U.S. sending more troops to Europe and a religious liberty Supreme Court case.

Watch the full broadcast below.