GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy requested more information from the Biden administration regarding its recent announcement of activating 3,000 U.S. troops of the Selected Reserve or Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) in Europe.
It’s downright disturbing that U.S. media is ignoring the fact that Biden is ordering *3,000* members of the Selected Reserve or Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) to Europe "for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve.” The last time there was an IRR call-up was during…
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) July 14, 2023
On Thursday, President Biden released a press brief outlining his order, which reads:
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility. In furtherance of this operation, under the stated authority, I hereby authorize the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, under their respective jurisdictions, to order to active duty any units, and any individual members not assigned to a unit organized to serve as a unit of the Selected Reserve, or any member in the Individual Ready Reserve mobilization category and designated as essential under regulations prescribed by the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, of whom not more than 450 may be members of the Individual Ready Reserve, as they deem necessary, and to terminate the service of those units and members ordered to active duty.
In response, Ramaswamy noted that the lack of media coverage surrounding Biden’s order is “downright disturbing.” He added, “We need answers, not sweeping this under the rug as [Joe Biden] would prefer.”
“I am equally sad & shocked that I have to ask questions that the mainstream press, and even much of the GOP, won’t,” Ramaswamy said.
The GOP candidate noted that the last IRR call-up was during the Iraq War, “when the justification then was nonexistent ‘weapons of mass destruction’ held by Saddam Hussein.”
“What is the justification now? What are the operations? Where will they go? What will they do?…This comes just 3 days after the Biden White House told Congress it wants to remove a provision of the annual defense policy bill that would create a special inspector general for Ukraine aid. Why? What are we not supposed to know?,” Ramaswamy added.
“Zelensky consolidated the Ukrainian media into a single state media network to avoid questioning him during the war. Even worse, the same thing appears to be gradually happening here at home. Pray that asking such questions won’t soon be alleged as a violation of the Espionage Act,” Ramaswamy said.
Operation Atlantic Resolve “provides rotational deployments of combat-credible forces to Europe to show our commitment to NATO while building readiness, increasing interoperability, and enhancing the bonds between ally and partner militaries,” according to the U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s website. The operation began in 2014 in response to the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy.
