The Army is at the center of the U.S. strategy to counter an expansionist Russia and could be required to maintain a defensive posture in Eastern Russia for the foreseeable future because of a ‘new reality’ the Russians have created by their adventurism in both Ukraine and Syria, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said Wednesday.
“Russia has used political, economic, and military tools to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of neighboring countries, flouted international legal norms, and destabilized the European security order by attempting to annex Crimea and continuing to fuel further violence in eastern Ukraine,” Carter said during a speech at the annual meeting of the Association of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. “In response, as I discussed with our NATO allies last week, and in the months before that, we’re taking a strong and balanced strategic approach. We’ll take all the necessary steps to deter Russia’s malign and destabilizing influence, coercion and aggression. This is the new reality for us strategically, but it looks like it’s here to stay.”
Since the Russian invasion and annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, the United States has beefed up its presence in Europe to assure regional allies that it would be there to support them should the situation erupt into open conflict. The 173rd Airborne Division was sent to train Ukrainian security forces under Operation Atlantic Resolve, training alongside military units from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.
The United States also has made staged marches, actually convoys, of Stryker brigades through hundreds of miles of eastern Europe in a show of force in cooperation with similar units from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
“That’s why we’ll continue to need the Army’s posture and presence in Europe, reassuring allies and reminding adversaries of our unmatched capabilities, strength, reach and readiness,” Carter said.
Even as the United States and Russia reach a détente by proxy in Ukraine, the same story is running its course in Syria. There Russia is bent on propping up beleaguered president Bashar Assad while U.S. interests are that he be deposed. Both Russia and the United States are notionally in the fight to destroy the Islamic State.
“Russia’s behavior in Syria is concerning and cross-wise to a sensible course of action.,” Carter said. “Instead of engaging in a political transition in Syria which is needed in that long-suffering country, Russia has chosen to double-down on their longstanding relationship with Assad, committing additional military hardware capabilities and personnel. Russia has also initiated a joint ground offensive with the Syrian regime, shattering the facade that they’re there to fight ISIL. This will have consequences for Russia itself, which, as I said, is rightly fearful of an attack on Russia.”
Carter said Russia has draped itself in a shroud of isolation from which it cannot emerge until it stops its adventurism in both the Middle East and Ukraine.
“For now, from the Kamchatka peninsula through South Asia, into the Caucasus and around to the Baltics, Russia has continued to wrap itself in a shroud of isolation, and only the Kremlin can decide to change that,” he said. “I made it clear to our NATO allies that, despite a strategically mistaken action by the Russians, we, for our part, will continue to prosecute the counter-ISIL campaign with the same determination and in the same battle space as we have since it started in Syria.”