Dempsey: US Considering Sending Combat Troops To Help Iraqis Fight Islamic State

[Purveyor]

Source: Stars & Stripes

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is considering sending a limited number of American ground forces to fight alongside Iraqi troops as they launch complex missions to regain territory lost to Islamic State militants, the country’s top military officer said Thursday.

Thus far, American military personnel have been limited to serving as rear guard advisers to the Iraqi security forces and the Kurdish peshmerga. But Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said that could change as the campaign against the Islamic State becomes more difficult.

“As it evolves there are certain operations that could be more complex than the ones in which the Iraqi security forces are currently involved,” Dempsey told the House Armed Services Committee. “There are some places along the path that I think will be fairly complex terrain for them, including, for example, Mosul. And eventually as they need to restore the border between Iraq and Syria.”

Dempsey said he was not predicting that American troops would be required alongside Iraqi forces in such operations “but we’re certainly considering it.”

In any event, Dempsey said the number of U.S. combat troops fighting with the Iraqis would be relatively small.

Read more: http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/dempsey-us-considering-sending-combat-troops-to-help-iraqis-fight-islamic-state-1.314096

[morningfog]

1. Dempsey said the number of U.S. combat troops fighting with the Iraqis would be relatively small....

as a start.

[EEO]

2. Major escalation on its way.

[Purveyor]

4. On several fronts, indeed. 2015 is shaping up to be the year of war and more wars. eom

[KG]

3. Let the parsing begin!

[hibbing]

5. oh great

Watching the American Empire crumble before my eyes. At least the 1 percent will be able to enjoy their lives.

Peace

[Old Nick]

6. Reminds me of the guy on the left

[amandabeech]

27. Does this mean that the army will bring back the body count?

Will MSNBC show it?

Will any news organization actually show our men and women fighting and dieing like the networks did during Vietnam?

Or will this be the Judith Miller sanitized version?

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

7. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn

no words to this fustercluck.

[ballyhoo]

8. How anyone did not think this was going to happen

is beyond me... The people that control Obama decided long ago that he was fine for the transition from Bush, and now it's back to the neocons and the PNAC.

[Maedhros]

11. It was rightly concluded that another Republican President right after Bush

would have intensified the country's growing anti-war sentiment. The only way to get anti-war Democrats behind the Forever War would be to have an ostensibly "Liberal" Democrat continue the foreign policy plans laid by PNAC.

And it's worked like a charm.

[ballyhoo]

13. You got it! But you can't tell anyone

here what happened. Now, to be fair to this site, many people here objected to the wars even though they failed to understand why they were happening. The MIC has now got what they wanted with their man, and the tidbits he is throwing the Democrats (amnesty through non-deportation) are simply a distraction to give the oligarchs what they want in terms of money-grabbing bills, like Keystone and TPP. The first quarter next year will be an introduction to the new Colonialism under the neo-kings.

[Maedhros]

16. It's the same plan as Baron Harkonnen's in the novel Dune

Let Beast Rabban savage the planet until the people are ready to revolt then replace him with Feyd Rautha, whom the people will love.

Yet the Baron is calling the shots the entire time.

[ballyhoo]

19. Yes. Pretty much. The next drop down in living

standards may be palpable. The shot-callers may do things slower than expected so as not to arouse the natives too much. But, then, arousing is now simply sending out emails and going to parks with garish signs. This is not real arousing. So, the devolution of the proles may actually be done faster. Who knows? Whatever, it will not be pleasant. But not to worry: the Dems just re-elected Harry Reid Senate Minority Leader.

[Maedhros]

21. Two quotes from "The American President" that seem appropriate:

Paraphrased, for context -

I've known {the Democrats} for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason {Democrats} devote so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that {they} simply don't get it. Well, I was wrong. {the Democrats'} problem isn't that {they don't} get it. {The Democrats'} problem is that {they} can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, {the Democrats are} not the least bit interested in solving it. {They are} interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.

People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand.

[ballyhoo]

22. Well, the first paragraph pretty much applies to both parties now. They

instill fear as a constant weapon and blame as the vehicle to bring forth change. It always works, but it leaves a country gripped in fear like Tom Engelhardt wrote in The United States of Fear. And then the MIC does what it wants with barely a whimper--like now.

[Maedhros]

24. The original quote was in regard to a Republican Senator (Bob Rumsford).

Many on DU are quick to point and laugh at how the Republican base is being tricked into voting against their best interests by campaigns based upon fear and bigotry.

But many rank-and-file Democrats fail to see the same tactics being used on them, instead of just on those Republican rubes.

[AnalystInParadise]

29. People that control Obama?

Are you freaking serious? This is all his decision, just like it was Bush's.......Last I checked he was the Commander in Chief, not some tin foil hat conspiracy theory about a shadow government.

[ballyhoo]

30. Yeah, sure. Go with that--

[AnalystInParadise]

31. I do tend to go with reality

.....Every President is said to be beholden to some dark force.....it is never true...

[ballyhoo]

33. I don't know about dark forces. But every President

since Eisenhower has had people directing his activities. Usually the very rich. You have your own beliefs. That's fine.

[AnalystInParadise]

34. Right because the rich

really run this country......sell me another bridge in the desert.

[ballyhoo]

35. Without question they do. You will know that

with absolute certainty one day. With even greater assurance if you ever get to division level in a Fortune 100 company. I gotta walk my dogs, that are both Democrats, so I'll see you. Your last statement really surprised me.

[AnalystInParadise]

36. I got it

you refuse to actually prove your opinion. As expected.

[ballyhoo]

38. The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

Niccolo Machiavelli

[Cal Carpenter]

42. No, they just spend billions of dollars on lobbying and elections

for shits and giggles.

It has *nothing* to do with protecting their interests and investments and holdings in order to increase their wealth.

Of course not.

Coincidentally, wealth inequality is increasing steadily, to nearly unprecedented levels.

/sarcasm

The uber-rich and the political class share most of the same interests. It is not some shadowy conspiracy with puppetmasters, it is actually right in our fucking faces in the broad daylight, with legislation and court rulings to back it up.

From the board rooms and executive offices to the major national politicians to the military and major industries and the lobbyists they employ.... there are certainly nuanced and competing interests - but at the end of the day few of their interests are those of the vast majority of the people on this planet. Privatization, control of resources, military action, these are priorities for people who control massive amounts of financial wealth and property.

Honestly, it sounds like you are being sarcastic or playing dumb. Unfortunately I think you really believe what you are saying.

Wow.

[Lurks Often]

32. It's tin foil time here again

They can't possibly understand why a President that they voted for and believe in whole heartedly would EVER decide to send troops back to Iraq or Afghanistan.

[CJCRANE]

9. One hand creates the problem

and the other hand fights the problem.

[ballyhoo]

10. A dialectic of a certain type as below...

the Hegelian process of change in which a concept or its realization passes over into and is preserved and fulfilled by its opposite; also : the critical investigation of this process.

It is used time and time again in this country but you're considered a CTer if you mention it.

[florida08]

12. Isn't there already 3000

"advisors" already there? This is why voters have lost confidence. Voices falling on deaf ears.

[caber09]

14. This is going to end up being (at least) 10K....

Which is what Obama/military wanted to leave behind to help stop an uprise of something like ISIS, unfortunately the Bush treaty left everything up to the pleasure of Maliki, who couldnt wait to kick us out....and the power of having troops in Iraq was left up to the iraqi PM...once the new PM who wanted US help requested it, the advisors etc starting going back in....hopefully it wont get much bigger than the 10K planned.

[ballyhoo]

15. Yeah...right...

[grahamhgreen]

17. Geuss what? It's not our country or our fight.

[grahamhgreen]

18. Elected to end Iraq, he goes back in. Can you imagine if this happened with Vietnam????

[ballyhoo]

20. There would be blood in the streets. But that was a different

time with a people more energized to the wishes of the common man--you know the "We the People" crowd. We now have groups mainly concerned about what their 2 to 7 per cent want, and the village be damned. And the damned villages are patrolled by pseudo military carrying flash grenades and assault weapons.

[jakeXT]

23. Bush:"In the older days people were held to account, now there is so much stuff out there..."

[ballyhoo]

26. That's pretty much true, and Bush saying it is

very ironic. Now, anyone can say anything and if it's wrong they won't be held to account because there is no one to do it. Most everyone in politics, the courts and the MSM are crooks themselves.

[Javaman]

25. could you imagine if this was during a repub admin?

we would all be screaming bloody hell right now, but oddly now, not so much. funny that.

[grahamhgreen]

28. Yes. I agree with the above comments to the effect Obama is being used to sell Dems on Perpetual war

[Purveyor]

41. This place should get interesting indeed when the casualty counts start rolling in AND

we 'march on' to Syria to take out Assad and give israel cover while they engage Iran.

Think we are 'divided' now? Haven't seen nothing yet and I would lay a small wager that before the Hillary coronation takes place for 2016, this place will shutdown and Discussionist will be the only thing left standing.

Just saying...

[24601]

39. Yes, if it was evident that North Vietnam was going to attack the US at home and abroad. But they

weren't - and they were a real country. And why they weren't the nicest guys in the world, they weren't world-class terrorists. And you could sit across the table and negotiate with them.

If President Obama does send troops back to Iraq, it's not to fight the Iraqis, is it? Perhaps he realizes that it was as much a mistake to pull out before Iraq was stable as it was to go in initially.

On a bigger perspective, look at the history of dealing with tyrants. We defeated Hitler and Tojo - who thinks Germany and Japan pose any threat to the US? We did not deal with Stalin or Mao - how are Russia and China doing these days.

[grahamhgreen]

40. Yes it is to fight Iraqis.,much of ISIS is simply the disaffected Sunni Bathists.

Russia's doing OK. China is kicking our ass.

[neverforget]

37. I wish I could say I'm surprised by this, but I'm not.

"In any event, Dempsey said the number of U.S. combat troops fighting with the Iraqis would be relatively small"

Just like a few hundred advisers turned into a couple thousand in a few months......

[840high]

44. ...^ that

[Orsino]

43. Phase One, of course, is the launch of a flotilla of trial balloons. n/t