As the war in Gaza rages, the Biden administration has deployed a record number of U.S. troops to Jordan, a new report to Congress reveals. The troop buildup has not been previously reported.
There are now a record 3,813 American troops in Jordan, according to the White House’s war powers report to Congress released on June 7. That’s a 625 troop increase over December, with the number of soldiers and airmen exceeding the number at any time since the second Gulf War and the invasion of Iraq, a review of past war powers reports reveals.
The Biden administration has sought to keep quiet its close military ties to Jordan, with the White House national security council instructing State Department communications officials to avoid mentioning its military coordination with the country in particular, according to internal memos I’ve reviewed. When Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in April, Jordan was a key partner in shooting them down, and Jordan even allowed Israeli planes to operate in Jordanian airspace. Jordan as a partner of Israel is a particularly sensitive issue, hence the desire on the part of Washington to keep talk of Jordan to a minimum.
The President’s war powers report to Congress is intended to keep the American public informed about situations in which U.S. military forces might find themselves in combat. In the case of Jordan, this isn’t a hypothetical: in January, an Iran-backed militia group killed three American Army soldiers stationed at a secret U.S. military base in Jordan, called Tower-22. Since October 7, Iran-backed groups have launched over 170 attacks on U.S. military assets in Syria, Iraq and Jordan. The Biden administration has repeatedly tried to downplay these attacks, insisting that the Israel-Hamas war has not spread to the rest of the region. The war powers report makes no mention of Iran-backed groups, saying only that U.S. troops are there to “support Defeat-ISIS operations, to enhance Jordan’s security, and to promote regional stability.”
Hellbound and Down 