According to Pentagon officials, they are feverishly at work on a “new narrative” for public discussion about the ongoing war against ISIS, centering on growing criticism of the apparent lack of a concrete plan for how to win the war or any end-game theory.
“To say there’s no strategy is just flat out wrong,” insisted Army Col. Christopher Graves, the public affairs officer for the war, and others say the goal is to present the notion that there is a strategy in place in a “concise, easy to understand way.”
The official narrative on the war has struggled mightily to find its voice so far, in no small part because officials have repeatedly ruled out things like combat troops and “boots on the ground” before announcing deployments into Iraq, and a lot of revision of what was really promised leading President Obama to eventually insist it was only a pledge for no battalions.
It remains to be seen exactly how the Pentagon aims to shift the narrative this time, but conspicuously absent from early conversation on this “new” narrative is laying out exactly what that nebulous strategy to win the war actually is.
And despite Pentagon assurances that they “welcome debate” on the strategy, that’s the one thing that’s least likely to happen, as the administration has so far seemed to base the public narrative of the war on a series of vague pledges to eventually wipe out ISIS in some unspecified way with some unspecified force, all the while escalating in ways that publicly they had insisted were ruled out. There are doubtless more escalations in the cards for the ISIS war, and the Pentagon goal is not to start a debate about that, but rather to convince the public to acquiesce.
When are we going to change our mind set in this country that we can no longer win wars? We haven't won a war since WWII with the exception of the Granada invasion! Even in Granada we lost a few of our fighters to a few natives! Not winning any wars by the US in recent history has anything to do with the brave soldiers who are on the front line and don't exactly know for what they are fighting! But it is the fault of the war mongers, war initiators, incompetent military leaders, supporting military complex, incompetent politicians and deceitful media and journalists!
"brave soldiers"?
You mean the torturing, child sodomizing, fear crazed war criminals?
What planet are you from?
That's pretty much the Pentagon's job these days isn't, inventing narratives. That's when they're not busy supporting terrorists.
When one is caught with their hands deep inside a cookie jar, there is not much one can say.
the goal is to present the notion that there is a strategy in place in a “concise, easy to understand way.” To get the Boobousie [ht HL] to go along with another disastrous Middle East Adventure which will be paid with their blood and treasure.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when practice to seek a new narrative.
The basic goal remains the same – bribe/fool/incite one group of Muslims into killing another group of Muslims all for the benefit of Israel.
When was the 'Official Narrative' of anything ever been true? If it's an 'Official Narrative', all the more reason NOT to believe it!!
…another bit is that terms kinda change their meaning with use… So, yeah, he could be the idiot who didn't catch that people are (maybe most) frequently critical-of/calling-into-question a 'narrative' when they call it that… Or it could be a diabolically clever thing to do: contributing to wearing the term down so that it no longer automatically evokes a connotation unfavorable to one's own side. I s'pect there can be sort of a sloooooow war-to-watch even just around terms…
…e.g. I'll only ever use the word 'liberate' when it's clear I mean stole or even killed…but the last time I did that here, for whatever reason, I then hear 'we liberated' Grenada on the radio—in a sorta defending-the-honor of-the-operation kinda way… Someone with a much bigger soapbox than I'll ever have might be justified in reading into sequences like that…
IF the USG is really interested in defeating ISIS then Obama should stand before the American people and admit that US ineptitude created ISIS and that the Saudis, Turks, Quataris, and others (Israel) are supporting ISIS and that he will do whatever it takes to force them to stop supporting ISIS.
But I won't hold my breath.
More like "deliberate action" than "ineptitude"…
Sure there is a "strategy." Is is Grant's strategy for the Wilderness Campaign in the Civil War: “I propose to fight it out all along this line if it takes all summer.”
Now however it is "fight it out along this line if it takes forever." And it will.
Meat grinder defined WW1. Meat grinder was Eisenhower in Europe and Stalin on the Eastern Front. This has a long history as US "strategy."
Aug 7, 2015 US Intelligence Confirms US Support for ISIS
A partially-declassified DIA report brings disturbing details about US support for jihadists in Syria. What kind of game is the US government playing in the Middle East?
https://youtu.be/d2WrwUM2RwI
Jesus Christ! I think my head is going to explode! Defeating ISIS!!??!! Defeating f*cking ISIS!!!??? Is that what ***they*** want??!! Bullshjt!! That's not what ***they*** want. ***They*** want Assad out. That's what ***they*** want. And ***they*** wanted al Quaeda to do it. ***They*** — US Neocons, Turkey, Saudis et al (on behalf of Israel) — made Syria into a jihadi assembly area for precisely the purpose of removing Assad. But — surprise! surprise! –other "players" had other ideas. Damn those other players rudely interfering with US/Zionist plans! What nerve! Have they no respect for the "exceptional" and "indispensable"? Don't they know who rules the world? (Answers: No, they don't!, and No they don't.)
The remnants of Saddam's old regime, who had taken refuge in Syria had other plans. When the cheesy-ass little jihadi terrorists sponsored by the West, caught the Assad forces flat-footed, and opened up a jihadi sanctuary in eastern Syria, the Iraqi Baathists seized the opportunity, came out of "retirement", and with their four-hundred years of experience in governance, internal security, intelligence, and military professionalism, took over eastern Syria and then, without missing a beat, western Iraq, and established — with Saudi and Turkish and US complicity — the Caliphate, essentially a new Sunni nation. And while they may have some interest in eventually taking out Assad — that's the US Neocon, Turkey, Saudi, Israeli priority — that's not ISIS's first priority. ISIS's first priorty is solidifying control of what the have already gained.
Which bring's us to the question of how to defeat ISIS. First thing, sweep away the bullshjt. Stop claiming that there was any intereston the part of the US govt in getting rid of ISIS. The problem is precisely that the Neocon/US et al have up till now (and even now) had little or no interest in getting rid of ISIS. The Neocon/US et al focus is/was on getting rid of Assad. And even now, when Putin has terminated that plan, the regime-changers aren't willing to give it up. They continue to look for a plan B. That's their focus. Not ISIS. ISIS is a distraction that has become a political obstacle which, though undesired, has to be dealt with. That said, and despite the monstrous consequences of the rise of ISIS, in particular the flood of refugees, there is still little to no enthusiasm in the halls of power for changing wars in midstream. Only ISIS's in-your-face brutality and propaganda and recruitment success and military success — yeah, all that! — has compelled the current Kabuki enthusiasm for taking on ISIS. ISIS is a "rogue" boogieman, a "distraction" from the larger Neocon/US plan of world domination — Mideast first of course, wink wink. Lack of interest, not lack of a strategy, is the reason "there is no strategy".
You want a strategy. I'll give you a strategy. It's totally easy and totally obvious. Tell Erdogan to terminate the ISIS logistics/funding/profiteering and close the border,… or else. Tell the Saudis to terminate ISIS funding,… or else. Then let nature take its course, which is to say let ISIS wither from starvation and lack of ammunition. Then, when the psycho extremists are weakened and dispirited, make contact with the Caliphate "infrastructure", that is the former Iraqi Baathists, and arrange a palace coup, a bit of ISIS "regime change". Rebrand the Caliphate as the new "moderate" Sunnistan — Syrac, if you prefer — declare victory, and let the UN draw new lines in a new Mideast.
They've beaten the crap out of the beaten women and little girls in school memes. So it's time to move on to something even more incredible – fatwahed cannibalism, organ harvesting and sex, sex, sex! And we have the documints to prove it.
morons listening to each other will not produce "new narrative"