Reuters
Dan De Luce, Foreign Policy: Is the U.S. Ready for an Endless War Against the Islamic State?
Top generals predict the fight against ISIS will last more than a decade. It’s not a message the White House or Congress wants to hear.
Looking out over rows of young American soldiers sitting in a dusty hall in Baghdad, the U.S. military’s top-ranking officer had a few questions for the troops.
Had they deployed to Iraq before, Gen. Martin Dempsey asked.
Out of about 200 soldiers in the hall, three-quarters raised their hands.
“How many of you think you’ll serve a tour in Iraq again?”
They all put up their hands.
“I think you may be right about that,” Dempsey said. “We’re going to be at this for a while.”
WNU Editor: President Obama clearly does not want to talk about it .... Obama’s Politicized Intelligence: Column: The White House spins—and ignores—its losing war in Iraq and Syria (Washington Free Beacon) .... and the U.S. Congress has been just as guilty .... Congress Avoids Obama’s Call for a Resolution of War against ISIS (AllGov).
These half-way measures will not work.
ReplyDeleteThe US needs to commit - either a combined arms effort (boots on the ground) against the Islamic State or withdrawing from the conflict entirely, hoping it resolves itself internally.
These half-way tactics, like the article states, will only lead to "endless" war - and if the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan have taught us anything, a prolonged/endless war is nothing but a gigantic financial quagmire for the US and morale/popularity booster for the OpFor (Islamic State), with little change in the direction of the conflict.