The Pentagon has announced that it is sending additional U.S. troops to the Middle East “out of an abundance of caution” after Israel launched a series of attacks on Lebanon that have killed hundreds of people in a major escalation of its war.
Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder said in a press conference on Monday that the U.S. is sending some military members to the region to bolster the 40,000 troops already in the Middle East. This may include several ships, including an aircraft carrier, which set off to the Mediterranean in a regularly scheduled deployment on Monday, as The Associated Press pointed out.
“In light of increased tension in the Middle East and out of an abundance of caution, we are sending a small number of additional U.S. military personnel forward to augment our forces that are already in the region,” said Ryder.
The U.S. has already maintained an increased military presence in the Middle East amid Israel’s genocide in Gaza, as experts and officials have warned of an all-out war breaking out due in large part to Israel’s aggression. This means that roughly 6,000 additional troops have already deployed in the region over the past year.
The administration has insisted that it’s focused on de-escalation and preventing a regional war. On Monday, ahead of a meeting with the president of the United Arab Emirates, President Joe Biden said that he had been briefed on Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and said, “I continue to be in contact with our counterparts and we’re working to de-escalate in a way that allows people to return home safely.”
Biden has been beating this drum for months. The president reportedly told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in August that he would not support Netanyahu if he continues to escalate amid captive and ceasefire negotiations.
However, neither Biden nor the Pentagon have offered solutions on de-escalation — and now Biden is not withdrawing help from Israel, but rather bolstering U.S. military presence and therefore providing support for Israel’s operation as it seemingly seeks to raze Lebanon, as it has Gaza.
The Pentagon announcement came as Israel was pounding Lebanon with hundreds of strikes on Monday, after carrying out a series of device explosion attacks last week. The strikes, spread across eastern and southern Lebanon, have killed hundreds of people, most civilians, in just a matter of hours, and injured over 1,000. Israel is also ordering civilian areas to evacuate amid its carpet bombing. One of these strikes was on Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, representing a significant provocation.
The bombing is an escalation of Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah, an armed Lebanese political group that took root during Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon. Tensions between Israel and Hezbollah have been high as Israeli forces have carried out their genocidal siege of Gaza.
In other words, by enabling Israel, the Biden administration is in fact enabling the escalation of its war on Lebanon, providing Israeli forces all the materials they need to bomb civilian areas as they please, after a year of committing atrocity upon atrocity in Gaza.
The U.S. has seemingly recognized this, even as Biden claims to support de-escalation. According to Axios’s Barak Ravid, Israeli officials have claimed that their attacks on Lebanon are actually “de-escalation through escalation.” This statement, as many opponents of Israel’s aggression pointed out, is patently ridiculous and self-contradictory.
But, as Ravid reported, U.S. officials said that they recognize and agree with this statement — meaning that they, in fact, support Israel’s escalation, despite their claims to the contrary.
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