U.S. To Send Ground Troops To Iraq and Syria in Order To Combat ISIS

[DonRocks]

"Ashton Carter: U.S. to Begin 'Direct Action on the Ground' in Iraq, Syria" by Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube on nbcnews.com

How do Russia and China sit back and do nothing while this terrorist group is destroying 2,000-year-old works of art, and assassinating civilians using barbaric methods?

I'm no hawk and I'm certainly no expert, but this organization needs to be eliminated by any means necessary.

[JPW]

Um, national interest. The Chinese have no dog in this fight. The Russkies need their only warm water base in Tarsus and the Assads have been a client for decades. They kill the most direct threat to their property. The U.S. balances the Sunnis and the Shiites and kills off a bunch of each. a few Special Ops guys die? Price of playing the game.

[DonRocks]

Um, national interest. The Chinese have no dog in this fight. The Russkies need their only warm water base in Tarsus and the Assads have been a client for decades. They kill the most direct threat to their property. The U.S. balances the Sunnis and the Shiites and kills off a bunch of each. a few Special Ops guys die? Price of playing the game.

You're right, and we've certainly done our job at ignoring machete killings in Rwanda, genocide in Sudan, etc.

[The Hersch]

All I can say is, Oh for fuck's sake.

When I say "oh, for fuck's sake", and I suppose my meaning may not have been instantly obvious to all who read my rude words, I mean, for fuck's sake, every intervention by the United States in the Arab world has made the whole world a worse place. A fresh intervention, no matter how well-intentioned, will not be miraculously different. There will be no unicorns this time, any more than there were unicorns the last time. We keep being cozy with Saudi Arabia, and selling them lots of weapons, while it's obvious that the Saudis, whether the family or the government (there's almost no difference), are funding and have funded some of the worst enemies of American national interest, such as Al Qaeda and Daesh, and we continue to support them because they're enemies of Iran, whom we oppose because--well, why, actually?. We're now prepared to march into Syria and back into Iraq in order to oppose the local allies of Iran, whom we empowered with our previous interventions, while the U.S. continues to support whatever violently wrong policy of whatever government of Israel is in power, and at the same time provide huge support to Israel's most powerful foe Saudi Arabia, because both Saudis and Israelis are opposed to Iran. Because, um, why? Meanwhile continued U.S. support of Israel exacerbates everything in the region, because the ongoing violence against the Palestinian people empowers every other actor in the region, whether Sunni or Shia, to act against Israel and to consider the U.S. an adversary, if not an enemy, even our ostensible friends the Saudis, who want to kill us.

Into this context, the U.S. should send the boys and girls of West Virginia and Missouri, in order to accomplish what? Make everything wonderful?

For fuck's sake.

[DonRocks]

"Syria: Obama Authorizes Boots on Ground to Fight ISIS" by Barbara Starr and Jeremy Diamond on cnn.com

"What US Troups in Syria Will and Won't Do" by Luis Martinez on abcnews.go.com

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And, in honor of Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler, 39, of Roland, Okla:

"Pentagon Identifies Soldier Killed in Combat with ISIS in Iraq" by Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Missy Ryan on washingtonpost.com

[Al Dente]

I have very little respect for Trump but he has one thing right - make Saudi Arabia (and other so-called allies in the region) deal with it. I'm not sure how but it seems like it would be in their interest to stop funding terrorism and stop pissing on our collective leg and claiming it's raining.