Deepening the U.S. Military Commitment in Iraq
Micah Zenko – Council on Foreign Relations
It is easy to conceive of this latest limited addition of U.S. troops to Iraq, and nearby countries, in isolation, and as the logical and necessary next-step in the expanding campaign against ISIL. However, the White House has been announcing troop deployments, with varying justifications and objectives, for over a year now.
If you are one of the few people truly interested in how the United States has gradually slid into this open-ended conflict, with little public debate, and zero congressional input, it is worthwhile to review some of the notable milestones along the way….
FILE – This undated file image posted on a militant website on Jan. 14, 2014 shows Islamic State fighters marching in Raqqa, Syria.
…with each new U.S. troop deployed to Iraq, you should expect that at least one additional private military contractor will be sent to support them … between June 2014 and today, the number of private military contractors has grown from between an estimated 1,700 to fully 6,300.
As Obama Escalates War on IS, Congress Must Give OK
The Editorial Board – The Christian Science Monitor
As the Islamic State displays more military strength in Iraq and Syria, President Obama has decided to deploy more soldiers to the war zone, which is already swarming with American war jets and drones. On Wednesday, he ordered an additional 450 troops to Iraq, bringing the total to some 3,500.
He has also admitted he does “not yet have a complete strategy” to defeat IS, especially as much of the war effort relies on the Iraqi government to unite and rally its military….
Without a consensus in Congress in the form of legal authorization for this war, the commander in chief is missing out on the collective wisdom of the American people in determining its purpose and conduct…. both he and Congress must bridge their differences and define a disciplined consensus on how to defeat IS.
A U.S. soldier, center, participates in a training mission with Iraqi army troops outside Baghdad on May 27, 2015.
Obama’s Jarring Honesty on Iraq
Carol Giacomo – The New York Times
“We don’t yet have a complete strategy,” President Obama told a news conference on Monday at the conclusion of a G-7 meeting in Germany.
The words were jarring, coming a year into the fight against the Islamic State, and gave critics, including Republican presidential candidates, a new reason to pounce. But there was nuance and truth in Mr. Obama’s comments that many ignored….
But Americans don’t want to re-invade Iraq and they are unused to having a president who admits that he and the country cannot fix every problem. If Iraqis, Turks and others in the region don’t fight to defend their own countries against extremists, no American strategy, no matter how brilliantly drawn, will save them.
South Vietnamese Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan, chief of the national police executes suspected Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem on a Saigon street Feb. 1, 1968. (AP Photo/Eddie Adams)
Battling ISIS and the Six Lessons of Vietnam
Richard Phillips – The Globalist
For conservative hawks in the United States, a chief outcome of the First Gulf War was that it removed, once and for all, the Vietnam “syndrome” from the American psyche….
And yet, the comparisons between the run-up to America’s defeat in Vietnam and the early stages of conflict in Iraq and Syria are nothing short of eerie….
By the end of 1967, America had 500.000 troops in theater – half of them in combat roles….
The lesson of Vietnam to be learned here: Be careful which side you choose, because your side may seem to be the right side, but it may not be on the same side as all the people it pretends to rule.
By the same token, the United States is advising an Iraqi army that is supposed to prosecute the government’s overall agenda. Just recently, that army “turned tail and ran” once again in the face of the enemy – this time in Ramadi.