The Biden administration is mulling stepping up the US troop presence inside Ukraine as part of a program to attempt to track the billions of dollars in weaponry being handed out to its forces.
However, some critics are already pointing out the obvious: "This is classic mission creep," a former US official has warned, following the examples of endless 'war on terror' conflicts-turned-quagmires such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
NBC News cited three US defense officials this week who indicated that sending a small number of additional troops to assist existing attempts to establish an arms-tracking oversight program inside Ukraine is being seriously discussed, coming at a time the White House is facing increased Congressional scrutiny over lack of accountability, particularly as Republicans are set to take over in the House next year.
"The Pentagon has a couple of dozen U.S. troops in Ukraine, including a very small number already assigned to making sure weapons reach their intended recipients," NBC reported. "Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other military leaders want to enhance the accountability mission and make sure there are experts in country to help Ukraine use critical weapons systems, including air defense and counter-drone systems."
It was first revealed in October that the Pentagon does in fact have "boots on the ground" beyond personnel safeguarding the embassy, in order to conduct "onsite" weapons inspections of US-provided stockpiles.
This reportedly includes locations outside the relative 'safety' of the capital, where US troops scan bar codes and look at serial numbers of US-supplied weapons shipments, but not yet in the vicinity of the front lines.
On Wednesday Politico revealed the contents of a "sensitive but unclassified" internal US government diplomatic cable which admitted the near impossibility of adequately overseeing weaponry once it enters the country:
The Biden administration also plans to tap a still-unnamed U.S. firm by February to implement a special three-year initiative to help the oversight effort, according to the "sensitive but unclassified" document.
And then there's this blunt acknowledgement from the 'sensitive' document [emphasis ours]:
The cable, signed by U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink, is a snapshot in time. But it underscores how crises like the Ukraine war — such as U.S. experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq — inevitably turn into hugely expensive undertakings that are hard to track precisely because of the chaos on the ground, often in countries with histories of corruption.
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