After repeatedly ruling out US ground troops carrying out any combat operations in Iraq, or ground troops even going to Syria, last week’s raid, which led to the death of a US soldier in Iraq, appeared to end this talk, but actually led to several days of officials parsing the word “combat.”
While this arguing over the meaning of combat lasted a lot longer than was reasonable, they appear to have ditched the idea with Defense Secretary Ash Carter today announcing that US ground troops “won’t hold back” from launching “direction action on the ground” in either Iraq or Syria, aiming to pressure ISIS.
As if to remove any doubt that this was a formal change, Carter declared to the Senate “this is combat and things are complicated” and that the ground troops will be “in harm’s way, no question about it.” So far there are no details on any additional deployments of ground troops for this new ground war.
The lack of detail so far is actually surprising, despite the administration’s repeated attempts to keep its policy shift announcements limited to soundbites. There aren’t even US ground troops in Syria yet, so it isn’t clear where they’re going to be coming from for that war, and Carter’s promises to support US allies in Syria, which likely means the Kurdish YPG, is certain to anger Turkey, meaning the Erdogan government won’t be letting the US use Turkish soil for staging such operations.
Ashton Carter is a vile despicable warmongering NeoCon. If we can somehow manage to get to the end of the Obama era without WWIII breaking out we will be very very lucky. People like Carter would like to see nothing more than WWIII and will do whatever they can to light the fuse. Look how they just ran that destroyer twelve miles from China's islands. Was this really necessary to rile up our banker? What is Carter going to do when they get all pissed off and dump all our bonds all at once?
These people are twisted and sick. Ashton Carter is but a symptoms for how sick our country has become.
Neo-Con? The guy is a Democrat and a avowed Clinton guy. Nice try. The Democrats showing that they can wage war just as good as the Republicans.
On the one hand, "neocon" has become a much over-used term, applied to any and all hawks when in fact neoconservatism is a small, insular intellectual school operating often more through influence on, than through direct access to, the levers of power.
On the other hand, not only is it not impossible for a Democrat to be a neoconservatives, quite a few of the most prominent Republican neoconservatives came over to the GOP from the Center for a Democratic Majority, the Democratic Party's "Scoop Jackson wing," etc., and presumably some of them remained there.
Oct 8, 2015 Neocons Demand Escalation in Syria
The Syria crisis is escalating since Russia began bombing ISIS and al-Qaeda last week. The neocons in the US are demanding that Obama do something to stop the Russians. The US mission is to get rid of Assad and there is great danger of an over-reaction.
https://youtu.be/PRNnmA56EWA
Neocons have been in charge for the past 20 years and will apparently remain in charge, so don't assume the next administration will act any different from the last two or three
The US-Zionist empire will do anything (including sacrificing American youth) to protect its proxy army of Islamist terrorists until all independent powers in the Middle East have been destroyed.
We helped create ISIS, we help supply them, we demonize them, we bomb them, we supply them some more, we bomb them some more, then we protect them from the Russians, then we send special forces against them…. It makes no sense to us. We are left to speculate what is the purpose of our crazy quilt foreign policy. Money? Israel? Hegemony? Game of Thrones? The people conducting our foreign policy are not confused, they are diabolical. My country, my Country, you are lost.
When one theorizes that the policy is "Controlled Chaos" and views the situation through that lens, then Uncle Sam's apparently irrational actions start to make sense in a twisted sort of way.
Of course, the policy of "Controlled Chaos" is completely irrational and delusional, as are Our Dear Leaders.
Or is it that they're so egotistic that they can't admit defeat ?.
Only we're not actually bombing them. We bomb power plants, oil refineries, and other civilian infrastructure in an effort to bring down Syrian society and subsequently its government. That's why Russia's air campaign has been so effective.
wait a minute, a week or so ago DC was rubbing its paws with glee at getting Putin in to a quagmire.
Getting ground troops into Syria without Turkish co-operation would be very difficult. Syria has a very short coastline and Putin's naval base is in the way (unless the object is to provoke Putin by challenging him to let US forces pass or attack them). They could come in through Lebanon, but I doubt if the Lebanese would br happy about that. They could come in through Israel, but the Israelis probably wouldn't like that either. So Turkey it more or less has to be and that will probably involve ditching the Kurds.
Iraq seems to be missing from your map.
Nothing gets the warmongers salivating more than the death of an American.
General Wesley Clark: Wars Were Planned – Seven Countries In Five Years
"This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran." I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don't show it to me." And I saw him a year or so ago, and I said, "You remember that?" He said, "Sir, I didn't show you that memo! I didn't show it to you!"
https://youtu.be/9RC1Mepk_Sw
General Wesley Clark Asked About 7 Country War Plan
https://youtu.be/_pGkFMho6Co
05/14/2015 Former 'NATO' Commander, Presidential Candidate Makes Millions Pushing Penny Stocks
Plato-quoting, West Point valedictorian, Rhodes scholar, former NATO Supreme allied commander, and one-time Presidential hopeful Gen. Wesley Clark had a carefully laid, three-point plan for life after public service.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-14/former-n…
October 28th, 2015 Donald Trump Says the U.S. Should Have Stolen Iraqis’ Oil After Destroying their Country
On Sunday the 25th of October, Republican U.S. Presidential aspirant Donald Trump was interviewed onCNN’s “State of the Union” show, and was asked about Iraq. He said, "I told you very early on, if we're going to leave, take the oil.” He then repeated this theme again, in this CNN interview: “And I said, take the oil when we leave.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/20…
The hawkish (neocon) wing of US policy makers do not, and probably cannot, acknowledge the severe contradictions within their own policies. The real limits to US military power are defined by these contradictions. The 2002 AUMF is the legal basis for US military activity in the Mid-East region, and it is predicated on a campaign against al-Qaeda and associated forces. Without a new AUMF revising the target, actions within Syria would be undertaken in alliance with al-Qaeda forces – blatantly illegal. This is why Petraeus and others were lobbying for a new AUMF just a few months ago. Any no-fly zone or ground operations in Syria or Iraq, without the permission of the recognized legal authority in either country, would be expressly illegal under the UN Charter. The hawks/neocons care little for legality, but others within the US elite would understand that the US requires allies and blatant illegal military action, particularly after already a dozen years of chaos, might serve to increasingly isolate Washington.
Does Ashton Carter make policy or carry out policy? Is the civilian government, the Obama administration and the congress actually in charge? I keep hearing Ash Carter declared this and Ash Carter declared that?
What’s actually going on here?
Good morning Vietnam.