The Pentagon is resigned to the idea that the new ISIS conflict is going to be a very long war indeed, with not only little to show for the early weeks of airstrikes, but no expectation of visible shifts in the near future.
Centcom Commander General Lloyd Austin echoed previous comments by other Pentagon officials trying to tamp down expectations of any significant gains in the months to come, pushing the idea that next year or later the war could switch to US advantage.
Gen. Austin said the idea was that a solid year or so of airstrikes would leave ISIS “much degraded,” and eventually they wouldn’t have any US-made tanks or Humvees, at which point the Iraqi military, or in the case of Syria the US-made rebel faction might stand a chance fighting them directly.
The Pentagon hasn’t even started creating the Syrian rebel force which they insist are so vital to the victory in that country, and they believe that in the best case, they will have such a force about a year after they begin training.
At present, the US airstrikes are hoping to hit vehicles to simply soften up ISIS, but with ISIS changing tactics and continuing to make gains, it’s hard to imagine how big of a force they might indeed become within another year.
The Pentagon envisions an extremely protracted war in this case, and Leon Panetta’s predictions of a 30-year war don’t seem to be outside of the norm.
Insane maniacs in control..The serfs will continue to suffer..until they…
So if the currently-non-existent rebel group eventually forms…will they be 'vetting' re-disgruntled ISISisis? Rigorous, lengthy interviews? Credit checks? Blood tests?
Would pale skin and red hair raise any questions then?
Well, it was either this or killing bin Laden again…
This whole enterprise is going to spiral way out of control in short order. The American people are being duped, again. They are war weary but are being conditioned to accept this expansion of war and the fact that this is the type of war that has no end. Already the MSM have pretty much taken ISIS off the daily reporting, relegating it to the "back pages" and "Oh, BTW" reporting.
I recently was in a deep Red state visiting old friends and the number of people who believe that it is our duty and responsibility to get involved in this civil war in Iraq and Syria is very, very high. And they will not listen to anything that does not fit the talking points of the war mongers because they've been told that to question their "facts" is unpatriotic and harmful to the safety of the US – and to the troops "putting their lives in danger to protect our freedoms."
In this period prior to the election, it is important that people question the people running for office about "WHY" we should get involved and demand answers that are based in reality.
But, I'm not going to hold my breath.
Your report is so depressing. Seems like nothing ever changes, except for the worse. Makes me think of Orwell's steel boot on the neck of humanity… forever.
I've taken to asking them 'and did you also call it "support?"'
In short, nobody seriously imagines we can win anything there in their own professional lifetimes. It can at best be fighting forever, to be resolved by their grandchildren. Hope is the plan.
Well, at least our rulers have gotten around to giving their war a name.
You'll love it…Operation Inherent Resolve…how's your resolve?
So these barbarians that pose such a serious threat to the "homeland" are going to be allowed to exist for at least another year? Won't we all be dead by then?
Question is wil the US last for 30 years. A lot can happen in that time. History is marching on and there is also Russia, China, Iran and the rest of the world.
The real problem is the "commander in chief" and the government are no longer in control. The military is telling the government how much money they want, and how long it will take. The military has no interest in finishing this war quickly or cheaply. The troops know very well there is no point in getting killed either. BHO is in the same position as LBJ.
No budget cutting when the troops are in "harms way". Nothing is too good, or too expensive for the troops. The peasants and shopkeepers have no place telling the warriors how to conduct a war.
Hide under your bed and pay the bills like the coward you are.
Unfortunately, it's not the "troops" who get the benefits…they remain still only cannon fodder. It's the multinationals and defense sector corporations who are the beneficiaries.
U.S. General John Allen
“We’re actually focusing, obviously, around Kobani, providing air strikes to provide humanitarian assistance…”
To make sense out of the statement one could say that sending body parts flying through the air is defiantly more human then torturing people to death, but, surely the comment was not designed to enlighten, but to be a mind-blower and burn up the emotional capital of those who oppose such an Empire expansion.
Only heard about the clumsier encapsulation: 'humanitarian bombing.' Guess they've decided it best to slip such things, a few words apart, into complete sentences now. I wonder if it works that way generally?:
"oh, 'mutilation' just sounds awful…how 'bout 'beneficial mutilation?'" Eight guys in the room nod, then eventually learn that doesn't work either. Years later, it turns up in the mouth of one of the ranking attack dogs… only it's: "providing benefit through humane mutilation." A few decades later everyone just calls whatever they were talking about ~'surgery.'
The objective is a permanent state of war! That is what Leo Strauss always said. Fear is what binds a society together. The objective is not to ever win. Whom we at war with makes no difference. The important thing is to be at war with somebody. It keeps the factories going, because the only thing this country actually manufactures is weapons. And that someday we are at war with usually has oil under their ground or is as Zibignew Brezinski called a Geo Strategic Pivot. That is why in the sixties when the Pentagon was agitating for war with Cuba (Bay if Pigs, Nortwoods etc), after they ended up with Vietnam, suddenly Cuba was no longer important because we were at war with somebody.
That's why we never leave Afghanistan because Afghanistan is as Brezinski described in his book THE GRAND CHESSBOARD, Afghanistan is a Geo Strategic Pivot.
If you want to understand what these people are really up to, you have to read the stuff they've written.