It’s the Ukrainian soldiers and the munitions and the supplies from the United States that are battling the Proxy War In Ukraine. For the War to continue, that relationship must stay in place: Ukraine fighters, US supplies. President Biden repeatedly assured Ukraine and the NATO coalition that the United States would support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.” To make it official, Biden emphasized that point in his most recent State of the Union Address on February 7, 2023.
So it must have come as a real shock to American allies, especially Ukraine, to find out that the US is running out of munitions. In an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Biden outlined how stores of artillery shells (particularly the 155mm shells) are depleted. We’re down to our last supplies. US Military commanders have been warning about this eventuality for months now. The bare facts are that the United States cannot supply Ukraine with the necessary shells. And Ukraine cannot come close to the estimated 60,000 artillery shells that Russia fires off daily.
We must understand this stark reality. The United States, all of NATO, and Ukraine are falling far behind Russia’s production and use of artillery shells and other weapons, such as missiles and drones.
To quote the President:
“This is a war relating to munitions, and they’re (Ukraine) running out of those munitions, and we’re low on it…” The President then explains that he will authorize “cluster munitions” to compensate for our low supply of more conventional artillery shells. Really?
The headlines were already written: “US Low On Munitions,” you likely read them this weekend. What has been whispered for weeks now was confirmed by President Biden. The US is not keeping up. The President’s promise to support Ukraine for “as long as it takes” was empty.
The reality is that our cupboard is bare. Either we vastly overestimated our capability to supply weapons to Ukraine. Or we vastly underestimated Russia’s ability to produce its armaments and weapons. Either way, this is an indictment of the American War Planners. Somewhere in that vast bureaucracy called the American Presidency, promises were made that we cannot keep.
Teddy Roosevelt’s dicta was reversed: “We spoke loudly but carried a very small stick.”
Unfortunately, munitions are not the only strategic resource currently running low. President Biden has not hesitated to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
Created in the mid-1970s, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a series of salt caverns deep underground, located in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The SPR was created as a response to the 1973 decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, to restrict oil sales to the United States severely. It resulted in an economic crisis here in America, with the cost of gasoline skyrocketing.
Realizing the strategic risk that the loss of imported oil posed, Washington created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to store a billion barrels of oil for any future emergency.
Congress recognized the temptation that reserve oil would hold for future Presidents, so they were exact in delineating just how the reserves could be used.
42 US Code, Section 6241, read’s (quote)
(1) Drawdown and sale of petroleum products from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve may not be made unless the President has found drawdown and sale are required by a severe energy supply interruption or by obligations of the United States under the international energy program.
So the two circumstances in which oil may be drawn out of the reserves are supply interruption and an international treaty. Neither circumstance has occurred during the Biden Presidency, yet he repeatedly tapped into the supplies to hold down gas prices. On its face, a move that does not conform to Section 6241. Regretfully, Congress went along with the President.
For the past four months, this Administration has continued drawing down the SPR, which now stands at less than 400 million barrels, the lowest level in nearly 40 years and 60% below the SPR’s target level when created.
Throughout the post-World War II period, the United States and the former Soviet Union assiduously avoided direct confrontation. The fear was that any conflict between the world’s then-two military superpowers might result in a Nuclear confrontation. A war that neither side would win.
Only once during that post-war period did the two countries directly face off against each other. It was during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Precipitating this crisis was the move on the part of the Soviets to place medium-range ballistic missiles into Cuba. Although the Soviet missiles of that era were less than accurate, at a mere 90 miles off the American shore, they were sure to inflict significant damage if launched. President Kennedy considered the presence of these missiles an existential threat to the United States.
Today, President Biden places a steadily escalating series of weapons into Ukraine. Which, incidentally, directly shares a border with the Russian Federation. America has supplied Ukraine with nearly $100 Billion in military supplies, including 45 T-72 Tanks, 186 Bradley Fighting Vehicles, 180 M777 Howitzers, 20 227mm HIMARS, 1 Patriot Battery, 20 Mi-17v5 Helicopters, and over 2,000 drones of various types. Further discussions are underway to steadily escalate the battle weapons for Ukraine, including the F-16 Fighter Jet.
All these resources have been given to fulfill President Biden’s promise to support Ukraine “with as much as it takes, for as long as it takes.” Through his unilateral actions, the President has made any debate over whether we should support Ukraine moot. In point of fact, he has already positioned America in direct opposition to Russia. The thin veil of a proxy war has already been pierced. American support for Ukraine is seemingly unlimited. The question we must now ask: after Biden’s drawdown of weapons and fuel, is there anything left for America?
References:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/07/politics/joe-biden-cluster-munitions-ukraine/index.html
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/6234
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-us-will-support-ukraine-as-long-as-it-takes-/6953138.html
