Posted on Oct 8, 2014
CPT Assistant Operations Officer (S3)
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As we are finding out, or as some may already know the ground is where a war is won. It isn't won by an air campaign or a Naval gunfire. Air support and attack aviation is great but that is a start. The guise we can defeat ISIS with airstrikes is naive at best. It will take a committed ground force to rid the world of ISIS. They are on the attack and the airstrikes are doing little to stop them. Now they are taking another major city. The Kurds are doing the best they can but they are outgunned and outnumbered.

The longer this is going on the more I think we will see Iraq III in the near future.
Posted in these groups: Multinational force iraq emblem  mnf i   1 5 IraqUntitled2 Close Air Support (CAS)
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Capt Jeff S.
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Edited 9 y ago
My Great Grandmother from Russia had a saying, "Get the mice before they get under your house and make nests."

We have waffled around and allowed the problems in Iraq and Syria to fester and grow -- because our Cmdr-in-Chief decided HE would rather be known as a (p)Resident who ended wars, than a (p)Resident who ended conflict.

Our leaving Iraq has resulted in an explosion of violence and extreme persecution of various people groups such as Shiites, Kurds, Christians, and Yazidis. We initially went to Iraq to stop Saddam's persecution of the Shiite Muslims and to put Iran on notice. Now look what we got. ISIS revels in its brutality and keeps upping the ante, getting more and more barbaric as it employs even more creative and horrific means of genocide.

And what does our Cmdr-in-Chief do? Instead of calling them ISIS, he calls them ISIL, acknowledging their right to ALL of the Levant, which includes Israel. How many of you picked up on that?

In Libya, our Cmdr-in-Chief armed the Libyan rebels who were fighting to topple Gaddafi. Obama did so, covertly, through his State Dept. Obama had used Ambassador Stevens to deliver arms to the Libyan rebels, and following their successful coup, Stevens was told to collect up the arms given to the Libyan rebels so that they could be shipped by boat from the port of Benghazi to a port in Turkey and then overland to Syria where we would be backing the Syrian rebels, who were fighting to topple the Assad regime. There is speculation that part of the deal, which wasn't shared with Ambassador Stevens, was that he would be kidnapped and held for ransom. Obama would then come to the rescue, securing the Ambassadors release and perhaps trading the blind sheik, and a few GTMO prisoners in exchange -- right before elections!!! Unfortunately, things didn't quite go according to plan.

Obama abandoned Ambassador Stevens and his staff and shut down any rescue attempt. Two former Navy SEAL contractors fought back and killed a bunch of rebels. Gen Ham put together a rescue team and was relieved of command for violating orders. The Libyan rebels, thinking they had been double crossed, killed Ambassador Stevens. Oops! This wasn't in the script!!!

Instead of owning up to what happened at Benghazi, the State Dept instead pushed a false narrative stating that the attack was not a terrorist attack (even though it happened on the anniversary of 9-11); rather, they said it was a demonstration over some obscure Internet video made by a Coptic, and things just got out of control. Honestly, do people show up to demonstrations armed with mortars and RPG's? Despite the evidence stacking up against them, the Obama Admin continued pushing their false narrative until it was no longer defensible.

Was anyone held accountable? NO! And those who lied to protect the Cmdr-in-Chief failed upward. Susan Rice, who was sent to run interference for Hillary, was promoted from Ambassador to the United Nations to National Security Advisor!!!

Fast forward to Syria, where again, we have Obama, through his State Dept, arming Syrian rebels who, like the Libyan rebels, had ties to Al Qaeda. Congress (OUR voice in government), was again kept out of the loop. Why? How would the American public feel knowing our tax dollars were going to support the Syrian rebels who - just like the rebels we covertly supported in Libya - were sympathetic to Al Qaeda, our sworn enemy. The rebels we supported in Syria... the liver eating cannabilistic rebels we supported, along with remnants of Saddam's regime, morphed into ISIS, which is like Al Qaeda on steroids. Al Qaeda was a concept. They didn't posess territory. ISIS does.

Everything this Administration touches turns to crap. You don't end wars by announcing timetables for withdrawal and walking away from those you promised to help. We did it to the Montagnards in Vietnam, and we're doing it again to the Kurds and Yazidis, and tribes in Afghanistan that fought with us. Our enemies don't believe us when we threaten them, and our allies don't trust us when we tell them we're going to do something. Rest assured, if we don't do something and soon, the violence overseas is going to find its way here.
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CW5 Desk Officer
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CPT (Join to see), unfortunately, I agree. We can say that our allies will put the needed boots on the ground, but really when it comes right down to it, we have the best military in the world, not just the best equipment, but the best personnel as well.

And if we plan to wait for the rebels to be trained, equipped, and ready to go, it may be too late.

It would be great if a coalition of the willing could put the needed boots on the ground to defeat ISIS. While that's possible, I am afraid it may be unlikely, or too little and too late.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/08/world/middleeast/isis-syria-coalition-strikes.html?_r=1
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CPT Assistant Operations Officer (S3)
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I think other countries are so used to the US doing all the work. They are not willing. I think it will come to a point where we won't have a choose. After Iraq is gone, countries like Syria will fall next. After that it might be Turkey or Jordan.
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CPT Assistant Operations Officer (S3)
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9 y
1LT L S I am only a company grade officer and I saw this coming.
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