 |
“I will not commit you, and the rest of our
armed forces,
to another ground war in Iraq.”
Modified image: Flickr.com
|
When President Obama insists that there will be no U.S. combat
troops on the ground in Iraq: don’t believe it. We will be dragged into another
ground war in Iraq. The temptation for the U.S. military is too great to forgo putting
boots on the ground. Mission creep is alive and well. It’s inevitably going to
happen.
Here are the reasons:
The Department of Defense and Congress are not on the same
page as the President. It appears a majority of Americans are
not on the same page either. According to recent polls, most of us now support
the view that airstrikes will not be effective and ground troops will be
necessary to remove the ISIS threat. With most of the country unified in supporting
combat troops in Iraq it will be hard for the President not to comply.
Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey revealed that
Apache attack helicopters were needed to fend off an ISIS attack only a few
miles from Baghdad’s airport. He added, “Had they overrun the Iraqi unit, it
was a straight shot to the airport, so we're not going to allow that to happen.
We need that airport.” It’s an ominous indication of where we’re headed.
Up to now, we have heard that U.S. combat forces are not
required by the circumstances we face. However, the Iraqi military is not meeting
expectations. ISIS is close to taking Baghdad. Therefore, the circumstances
have changed.
In a recent interview, Dempsey said, “US military advisors
are likely to take a more direct role in the ground campaign against jihadists
in Iraq once Iraqi forces are ready to go on the offensive. My instinct at this
point is that will require a different kind of advising and assisting because of
the complexity of that fight.” This means to me that U.S. advisors at some
point will engage in combat.
Moreover, most of us have heard all of the hyperbolic
rhetoric and propaganda before. We heard a similar storyline prior to the incremental
escalations that led up to the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and the rhetoric is
similar to the rhetoric in the months leading up to the 2003 Iraq War. Today we
call incremental escalation “mission creep.” The déjà vu feeling is overwhelming.
Here’s part of the Dempsey interview:
Copyright © 2014 Horatio Green
