Biden slammed for comments about US military readiness
Jack Birle
President Joe Biden is being criticized for comments he made on the U.S. military's readiness when discussing shipping cluster mutations to Ukraine amid the war with Russia.
Biden said the Ukrainians are running low on ammunition, but he also confirmed that the United States is low while speaking in an interview on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS that aired Sunday. Biden's comment was met with scrutiny, including from some congressional Republicans, who argued that aiding Ukraine was harming national security.
"The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition. The ammunition that they used to call them 155 mm weapons. This is a war relating to munitions, and they are running out of that ammunition and we're low on it. And so what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to, not permanently, but to allow for in this transition period where we have more 155 weapons, these shells for the Ukrainians, to provide them with something that has a very low dud rate. It's about — I think it's 1.50, which is the least likely to be blown," Biden said in the interview.
The Department of Defense has previously said the U.S. will not go below "readiness levels" in its assistance to Ukraine but also has said the U.S. is "in it for the long haul" when it comes to helping Ukraine in the war.
"We're not going to dip below our readiness levels, and we continue to assess our readiness levels with each, whether it's a presidential drawdown package or security assistance that we announce. Our goal is to make sure that we are setting up Ukraine for this enduring war that Russia started in February. And we're in it for the long haul," deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a press briefing in November 2022.
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