Speaking today in Germany during meetings with European officials, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter confirmed that the US is once again considering options for the further escalation of the war against ISIS, which would involve sending more US ground troops into both Iraq and Syria.
The US has announced two such escalations in the past two weeks, with 217 troops announced to be heading to Iraq on April 18, and 250 more troops being deployed to Syria just last week. Despite this, President Obama continues to present his wars as something other than “boots on the ground.”
Carter’s talk of yet more escalation, though nor surprising, comes so close to the last escalations that it’s a little disconcerting, with Carter only saying the US “are always looking to build momentum” in the war, and offering no details on how many more troops might be deployed.
The announcement also comes the same day as a US Navy SEAL was killed in ground combat in Iraq, despite repeated administration protestations that the US forces in the country are strictly “non-combat” facilitators, there to train and advise the Iraqi military.
With deployments always in the dozens or low hundreds at any given time, the US has still managed to get over 5,000 ground troops into Iraq, with another 300 in neighboring Syria, in less than two years.
In addition to boosting the numbers in both countries, the troops have also been increasingly deployed along the front lines, meaning that even if they are nominally not “combat” troops, they will inevitably end up in direct combat.
Syria is going to be a hard one to win, even if it’s Trump while he’s making America great again. The Obama red line and the Obama/Putin deal when the demands were satisfied has snookered the US all out war intentions on Syria for years to come. Maybe permanently!
And the plans for war with Iran are just as screwed up because of Obama’s admin signing on to negotiations and allowing them to be completed successfully. There’s no way Russia is going to allow the US’s intended war on Iran now and there’s no way the European parties to the agreement would ever allow it either.
It definitely looks like Trump is going to have a hard time making America great again in the ME, unless he does it with one big bang. And we all know that can’t happen because one big bang deserves another from the other side! Still, who can doubt the word of a corporate psychopath?
luv from Canada.
Ash Carter has no respect for international law let alone border integrity. Unless there is some kind of private deal, we have no legal rights of being in either Iraq or Syria. But then again Carter like the tyrants he serve believe they are the law and live by the motto of do as we say not as we do.
I think that Obama is doing the bare minimum he can get away with in Syria. And also, he probably now understands that he’s doing the maximum he’s expected to do. I’ll argue the latter. The US now understands that Russia and China have interests in both Syria and especially in Iran and those two are standing up with their MAD deterrent.
That is the status quo that has been established in the ME now, there’s no doubting it. All because of a weak president! Right?
That’s what I call “uppity”!
Ash Carter was chosen by the NATO for the position of Defense Secretary because of his keen terroristic criminal mind.
Technology is more accessible, and society is more vulnerable. Elaborate international networks have developed among organized criminals, drug traffickers, arms dealers, and money launderers, creating an infrastructure for catastrophic terrorism around the world.- Ash Carter
Catastrophic Terrorism: Tackling the New Danger
By Ashton B. Carter, John Deutch, and Philip Zelikow
IMAGINING THE TRANSFORMING EVENT
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/1998-11-01/catastrophic-terrorism-tackling-new-danger
Here you go. Jan 2, 2010 Hillary Clinton accidentally admits that the CFR runs this nation.
https://youtu.be/Kfpgl6NqF0I
Thank you for your interest Nathan but you either missed my point or avoided it. My point is that Obama has put US foreign policy in limbo and delegitimised any US all-out war actions on Syria and Iran. Russia has responded in the appropriate way and has asserted it’s power back into the ME. But the important factor is that Russia is on the side of finding peaceful solutions and the world can see that now.
Obama has been weak on foreign policy and now your country will pay the price for his inactions and his sidling up to Putin on their peace deals.
Ask any of the warmongers in your country if it’s true or not that Obama has been a traitor to your country by cooperating with Putin.
Apr 17, 2016 War is a Lie
Talk by David Swanson author of “War is a Lie” recorded April 15, 2016 at Town Hall Seattle.
https://youtu.be/3spLydTvTsg