Speaking to the Senate Appropriations Committee today, Secretary of State John Kerry once again made clear that President Obama’s Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) against ISIS won’t seriously limit the ground war.
The language of the nominal ban on ground combat only applies to “enduring offensive combat operations,” which includes so many exclusions that almost anything could be allowed.
Kerry insisted that “enduring” combat only meant “weeks and weeks of combat,” and wouldn’t cover any operations which are meant to assist Iraqi or other forces on the ground.
Kerry claimed the “enduring” term was invented by hawks Sen. Robert Menendez (D – NJ) and Bob Corker (R – TN), though Corker’s spokesman has since denied they came up with the idea.
Whoever came up with it, the point was to be vague enough that the president has “discretion” to carry out the war in whatever way he thinks appropriate.
The White House also made this clear earlier, in trying to get hawks to support the bill, saying the limitations were all so deliberately vague that they wouldn’t limit much of anything.
This alienated the less hawkish Congressmen they were hoping to lure in with promises of limits, while the vague language has also left a number of hawks opposing it, saying they want a bill more openly aggressive.
The planned offensive in Mosul appears to be a prime case for this vagueness, as Pentagon officials have made clear US ground troops will be involved in combat roles in this fight, though they will nominally be “helping” Iraqis in carrying out the offensive, so it won’t count as “enduring” in that regard, even if it takes a long time.
War without justice — Destroys the moral fabric of humanity
With NBC being owned by General Electric the world’s largest manufacturer of war materials, with most all of mainstream media likewise owned by investors heavy into war materials, take a moment to reflect on the fact that corporate owned media has a total blackout on what justice there is in using the horrible slaughter of war against the Islamic State when it is only pursuing it’s right to self-defense in a civil war.
For without hardly a shot being fired by the police in the Islamic State, they are able to establish a near violence free law in order. On the other hand, as Empire USA allows the upper half of society to hoard all the wealth, the police are nothing more then legalized killers and their jails and prisons incarcerate over a forth of all the inmates on earth.
The Islamic State abolished divorce court making marriage a lifetime affair and giving the children the full complement of affection from two resident parents. Whereas, Empire USA has broken all world records for adultery, promiscuity, divorce and the ungodly sight of teenage girls roaming the streets after dark.