Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Stephen Bryen is an expert in security strategy and technology who served as deputy under secretary of Defense during both Reagan administrations. Bryen recently published two articles in Asia Times that are causing some concern among the commentariat.
The first of these asserts that France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine, and they are members of the Foreign Legion. The initial 100 troops are part of a force that will number around 1,500 and will deploy in support of a Ukraine mechanized brigade near Sloviansk.
Sloviansk is a city in Donetsk Oblast, and is about 20 miles from Chavis Yar, an outpost currently under heavy attack and in danger of falling to the Russians. The decision to put French soldiers into Sloviansk flies in the face of stated French intentions to only deploy troops in non-combatant roles. Sloviansk is effectively on the front line.
France, by the way, is declaring in no uncertain terms that there are no French troops in Ukraine.
Bryen’s second article is more troubling than the first. In it he hypotheses that Moldova is starting to look like a staging area for the European Union to offset what is developing into a Russian victory in Ukraine. U.S. troops were in Moldova during April for Joint Command Exchange Training 2024. This joint training involved Moldova, Romania and U.S. forces to increase the level of interoperability between the participating contingents.
Officially, Moldova is a neutral country, and the joint training with foreign countries (the U.S. and Romania) would appear to violate current constitutional neutrality provisions. However, there is a move for a constitutional change to allow it to join alliances like NATO.
The Moldavian breakaway state of Transnistria has a Russian military contingent of 1,500 soldiers. There is also said to be a Russian ammunition dump there, that is eyed enviously by the ammunition-starved Ukrainians. For foreign troops to operate from Moldova on into Ukraine, they would need to take over Transnistria.
NATO wants to have a counterweight to a Russian victory in Ukraine. Building a staging area in Moldova appears to be a potential strategy. It is possibly the beginning of a much-needed Plan B but is not without complications for the Collective West. The Russian troops in Transnistria threaten Plan B.
Why do I think that the neo-cons in Washington are contemplating a color revolution in Moldova?
Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:
