From the moment he announced, when the latest US war in Iraq began, that there would be “no boots on the ground,” President Obama was not being honest with the American public. Yet after years of trying to revise that to mean something short of no US ground troops, the sheer numbers appear to have overwhelmed the discussion.
Officially, the US had somewhere around 4,500 troops in Iraq. The actual numbers are in excess of 6,000, the discrepancy being the result of an attempt to brand certain troops as “temporary,” despite having no end date for their deployment, as a way to add troops above and beyond caps they’ve long since blown through.
Now, with Pentagon officials openly talking about US troops playing a substantial role in the imminent invasion of Mosul, there is no room for pretense, and officials are just adding more and more troops all the time, hyping them as part of this “vital” invasion.
The exact timing of the Mosul invasion is still a matter of speculation, but it is expected this month. Despite talk of ISIS being “on the run,” they’ve had years to prepare for the defense of Mosul, and a substantial resistance is expected, with an awful lot of combat for Pentagon officials to claim the troops aren’t engaging in.