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Sorry, much as I wish it would work... this won't.
Obama basically said two things: (1) airstrikes, and (2) giving weapons and money to others in the region to fight on the ground.
Airstrikes alone are insufficient for a force of this size, and in terms of effectiveness, the military's hands will be tied. They will have to conduct these airstrikes in a way to avoid civilian casualties, so they'll avoid a lot of shots. And when civilians will inevitably be killed, anger against the USA will grow and ISIS will have a recruitment field day and our allies in the region will find it hard to be seen as helping the USA. ISIS, knowing this, will hide supplies and troops within the civilian population.
Giving weapons and money to other shady Middle Eastern groups to fight on the ground will be ineffective and backfire. If these people in Iraq and elsewhere were capable of mounting a meaningful resistance, they would have already done so. They are no serious fighting force. The rebels in Syria are fractured and beleaguered from their civil war. The people we will be arming will be highly questionable in terms of their effectiveness and motivations, and the weapons may well end up being used against Americans. It's happened in the past.
The only way this really works is with US and European boots on the ground, or with unrestrained bombing campaigns that result in a lot of collateral civilian deaths. And that will only happen after this gets bad enough and they make some serious strikes against US interests, here or elsewhere.
Hmmm, where is your exit strategy? or once boots are on the ground do you embrace the McCain doctrine of baby sitting the region for a 100 years? how is this being paid for or are you just adding more debt?
Like always too many special interest groups to contend with to do anything effective. Much different than Bush I allies standing up to be counted in on his leadership and plan. Truth is we are no better off and deeper in debt and worse off in Iraq than when he came into office; plain and simple. Its called leadership failure. If you read the French ministers comments today ;you will understand even his failure in Syria action taken earlier and why they will not follow blindly trust Obama.
Sorry, much as I wish it would work... this won't.
IMO Obama has been dragged kicking and screaming into this, and I wonder why. To make matters worse, we have a president who doesn't believe in projecting military force around the world, so every decision is going to be half-a$$ed. What a mess.
09-13-2014, 12:55 PM
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n/a posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dockside
IMO Obama has been dragged kicking and screaming into this, and I wonder why. To make matters worse, we have a president who doesn't believe in projecting military force around the world, so every decision is going to be half-a$$ed. What a mess.
You mean as opposed to the "full-assed" decision that got us into this position in the first place?
It's a mess either way. We can keep our noses out of it, ignoring the problem we played no small part in creating. Or we can strike from the air. Or we can put boots on the ground for a while. Or we can put boots on the ground forever.
On the ground forever is not workable. Boots on the ground for a while gets our people killed. Air strikes kill them but not us, but they'll be back about twenty minutes after we stop bombing - the best we can hope for is containment. Or we ignore the problem and let Iraq become a terrorist-run failed state of our very own creation.
You mean as opposed to the "full-assed" decision that got us into this position in the first place?
It's a mess either way. We can keep our noses out of it, ignoring the problem we played no small part in creating. Or we can strike from the air. Or we can put boots on the ground for a while. Or we can put boots on the ground forever.
On the ground forever is not workable. Boots on the ground for a while gets our people killed. Air strikes kill them but not us, but they'll be back about twenty minutes after we stop bombing - the best we can hope for is containment. Or we ignore the problem and let Iraq become a terrorist-run failed state of our very own creation.
There are no good solutions.
The bolded is what I think we should do at this point, please do not ask me what that would look like I am not a military expert. The U S should with drawl all bases and embassies in the region and tell Americans if they stay it is at their own risk. Then let the Shia and ****es fight it out and let the best Muslim group win.
I would like to see the locals deal with ISIS. Are they that disorganised over there that the Governments don't have a reliable fighting force to deal with rebels? Of course I never understood how it was OK for some radical idiot with a suicide vest to blow up a market and then it seems that steps are not taken to prevent it from happening again. When those clowns set off those bombs at the Boston Marathon the entire city was on high alert until they were caught.
America should not give arms, money or anything else because as history has shown it goes to waste or the weapons are used against us.
War is a way of life for many in the Middle East and America getting involved once again has disaster written all over it.
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