Just days after announcing another significant deployment of ground troops into Iraq, Pentagon officials are saying they fully expect to seek even more ground troops in future deployments, though they declined to offer any specifics on numbers or timetables.
This is in keeping with what the Pentagon has done throughout the ISIS War, getting a few hundred more troops here and there, and following each deployment up with an almost immediate request for another deployment. It is in this way that the US went from “no boots on the ground” to an official force of about 4,600, and an actual force of about 6,000, in just a couple years.
Pentagon officials insisted that near-term further deployments would be needed to rebuild the Qayara Air Base, which was recently captured by the Iraqi military. The last deployment was also supposed to be to repair the base, which was largely destroyed in US airstrikes over the past two years.
Gen. Joseph Votel, who confirmed that more troops would be sought, also insisted that even if ISIS was defeated, it would likely not mean any drawdown of US troops from Iraq, insisting that the US wants to retain “capabilities” in Iraq even after this war.
Sure, lets re-invade. The Iraqi people will welcome us with flowers & open arms.
Of course — we never left. It was an illusion. While we busily armed anyone that for some money and weapons will form yet another five to ten member “rebel” group. And as if Iraqi do not understand everything there is to understand every time a bomb kills hundreds of streets. As if they are dumb and do not see the fingerprints. This rubbish will continue until one day somebody cleans up State Department, takes back CIA from the “contractors” that now run it, and remove the top echelon of military force that has become politicized, while rank and file is fuming.