{"id":1251243,"date":"2022-01-28T14:37:56","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T19:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1251243"},"modified":"2022-01-28T14:38:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T19:38:03","slug":"defense-sec-concedes-possibility-that-u-s-troops-could-face-off-with-russians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/defense-sec-concedes-possibility-that-u-s-troops-could-face-off-with-russians\/","title":{"rendered":"Defense Sec. Concedes Possibility That U.S. Troops Could Face Off With Russians"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">24<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdefense-sec-concedes-possibility-that-u-s-troops-could-face-off-with-russians%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1251243&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conceded Friday that there is still the possibility that U.S. troops could find themselves face to face with Russian troops \u2014 although he stressed that there was still time to work within the diplomatic space as well.<\/p>\n<p>Austin gave a briefing on the escalating tensions \u2014 not just between Russia and <a href=\"https:\/\/dailywire.com\/news\/what-kind-of-support-will-germany-send-next-pillows-kyiv-mayor-mocks-germany-for-promising-5000-helmets-to-ukraine\/\">Ukraine<\/a>, but between Russia and the United States as well \u2014 alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, and he said that the primary goal was to continue to pursue diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecDef?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecDef<\/a> Lloyd Austin: \u201cConflict is not inevitable. There is still time and space for diplomacy. The United States in lockstep with our allies and partners has offered Russia a path away from crisis and toward greater security.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kDR4J806zy\">pic.twitter.com\/kDR4J806zy<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 CSPAN (@cspan) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cspan\/status\/1487129005878910977?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 28, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One reporter asked about the U.S. troops who had already been put on alert for possible deployment, apparently referencing the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan when she asked, \u201cHow do you know when you are done? You don\u2019t send troops unless you have an exit strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She went on to ask what it would take for U.S. officials to \u201ctrust Putin\u201d and just how much damage \u2014 particularly to civilian population centers in <a href=\"https:\/\/dailywire.com\/news\/rep-gallagher-situation-in-ukraine-about-to-get-much-worse\/\">Ukraine<\/a> \u2014 would be done if Russia did embark on a full-scale military invasion.<\/p>\n<p>Austin replied first, saying that the <a href=\"https:\/\/dailywire.com\/news\/crisis-in-ukraine\/\">American troops<\/a> already in the region \u2014 and those preparing to potentially join them \u2014 were there to reassure allies that the United States was prepared to come to their aid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are focused on NATO, we are focused on reassuring our allies and that\u2019s what this is all about. In terms of trusting Putin, I don\u2019t think this is about trusting Putin. This is about our allies trusting us,\u201d Austin continued. \u201cAnd so that\u2019s really what we are focused on and we, you know, Mr. Putin at some point in time will reveal what he\u2019s thinking, but again, I\u2019m not sure that he\u2019s made final decisions on what he\u2019s going to do yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Milley jumped in then, adding, \u201cLet me first say that as the Secretary said up front, we don\u2019t think final decisions have been made to conduct any sort of offensive operation into Ukraine by the Russians, and we firmly believe there is still room for diplomatic outcome here. Having said that, given the type of forces that are arrayed, the ground maneuver forces, artillery, ballistic missiles, the air forces, all packaged together, if it was unleashed on Ukraine it would be significant, very significant, and would result in a significant amount of casualties and you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas along roads and so on and so forth. It would be horrific, it would be terrible and it\u2019s not necessary and we think a diplomatic outcome is the way to go here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The reporter pressed again asking directly whether or not the conflict could put American troops on the ground, face to face with Russian troops.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCan you keep U.S. forces from having to deal with Russian forces directly, if you are reinforcing eastern Europe, for example. Will U.N. forces be in missions against Russian forces, can you keep them away from Russian forces?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, our presence here helps to reassure our partners in the front line countries there, and you know, Barb, that we have an Article 5 commitment to our NATO partners, and so if Putin were to attack one of those countries, then of course that commitment \u2013 that\u2019s an ironclad commitment, the president has said a number of times we will live up to that commitment, and so \u2013 but again, our focus is not on fighting in Ukraine, it\u2019s on reassuring our NATO partners and allies,\u201d Austin replied.<\/p>\n<p>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conceded Friday that there is still the possibility that U.S. troops could find themselves face to face with Russian troops \u2014 although he stressed that there was still time to work within the diplomatic space as well. Austin gave a briefing on the escalating tensions \u2014 not just between Russia and &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1251243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1251243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1251243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1251243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1251243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1251243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}