No. Equipment, tactics, techniques, and procedures often are. Additionally, many of the laser-guided bombs are often less precise, depending on the point in development of the guidance package. So anything we could just "leave" with the kurds (recognizing that anything we leave is subject to capture by bad actors) would likely of necessity only be interfaceable with the munitions less likely to be effective against small, moving targets.
No. I happen to know a little bit of what I am talking about, which is why I know that your simplified answer does not actually meet the requirerments.
So, by the way, do two US Secretaries of Defense and a line-up of US Generals, which is why they are saying similar things.
Generals only care about winning battles and often we end up losing the war
Obama does not want to play. We need a strategy to stabilize the region not just win battles.
Turkey is a NATO country. I'm sure they are not that weak. The holdup is that they have a Kurdish "problem" in Turkey so they want the Kurds to lose.
Yet didn't want to take Assad on directly.....and allowed the MB backed Sunni Syrian Rebel/Terrorists to run their operations in and out of Turkey.
War is expensive, they thought it would be cheaper to wait it out and let us foot the bill. They need to step up or get out of NATO.
Turkey is a NATO country. I'm sure they are not that weak. The holdup is that they have a Kurdish "problem" in Turkey so they want the Kurds to lose.
...
Yeah. So far that plan is working out just awesome.
I would have to agree with that. Then enemies of our enemies are killing our enemies, and the friends of our enemies are killing each other. No point in the US getting involved, it seems to me that they are resolving their issues the only way they know how, and doing a mighty find job of it.
Exactly which group of potential terrorist are you wanting to save?
...we are tending to side with the Kurds, but only because they are fighting ISIS, and we view the Kurds the lessor of evils...
Yeah. If there is one thing that is awesome, it's millions of refugees, two nations soaked in blood, attempted genocide, and ungoverned space serving as a launch-pad for terrorist groups for years. Yeah. That's fantastic.
I've posted some Congressional Research Service resources on the Kurdistan Regional Government (Iraq) and also a link to that body's website and long-term vision in the Mideast forum (http://www.debatepolitics.com/middl...kurdish-autonomous-region.html#post1063853069).
The KRG most definitely is a rare positive story in a highly unstable region.
Right and all we have to do is send our boys right in the middle of them with targets on their backs and they will all forget their differences and all start shooting at US. Then when we get tired of our young men coming home with their legs blown off,(20,000 wounded in Iraq alone) we leave and they pick right up where they left off. That's your plan alright
Oh, hey, look!
A strawman!
:roll:
Liberals can be very selective when it comes to acts of humanitarianism.Right and all we have to do is send our boys right in the middle of them with targets on their backs and they will all forget their differences and all start shooting at US. Then when we get tired of our young men coming home with their legs blown off,(20,000 wounded in Iraq alone) we leave and they pick right up where they left off. That's your plan alright. The fighting is so enticing that we just can't resist joining in the "fun". And the great thing is the rest of us can sit at home and watch it on TV.....Right after NCIS of course.There is another way.....We can make them clean their own latrines.
Liberals can be very selective when it comes to acts of humanitarianism.
I glad you came to your senses and no longer support US combat troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria. You're showing a rare case of good judgment.
Is that what war is to you? Is it humanitarian to subject a region to eternal war? How many civilians have died there since we got involved do you think? Actually they were the lucky ones.
yeah. Because the ones who have died after we decided not to involve ourselves have been crucified.
"Eternal war? Where did I suggest that? In fact when Obama pulled the troops from Iraq there were just 55 deaths for the entire year and that included auto accidents, etc. Now, three years later, it is hell.Is that what war is to you? Is it humanitarian to subject a region to eternal war? How many civilians have died there since we got involved do you think? Actually they were the lucky ones. As long as we do all the meddling there will never be a resolution. Is that the goal?
"Eternal war? Where did I suggest that? In fact when Obama pulled the troops from Iraq there were just 55 deaths for the entire year and that included auto accidents, etc. Now, three years later, it is hell.
There is no need to guess at questions, or answers. You can just read the post and respond to the words therein. I'll do the same.
https://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/beyond/blurring-war-and-peace/Officially, Iraq is now a democracy… a far cry from the cruel dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, as echoed in the speeches of George W. Bush and Tony Blair, with its repression and brutality, torture, perpetual fear and terror. Or is it?
A tyranny is a cruel and oppressive government or rule, with unrestrained exercise of power and undue severity or harshness. Iraqi democracy has all the characteristics of a tyranny. Since 2006 thousands have been arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the regime. Protesters have been shot at and killed, any insurgency is met with shelling that kills insurgents as well as civilians, while political opponents have been persecuted. In the past 2 years, since the US army has left Iraq, the situation has deteriorated to where now there are nightly shellings and mortar attacks by the Iraqi army, in addition to the terrorist acts which never ceased.
In Ramadi and Fallujah, residents have accused government forces of illegally detaining citizens, torturing and raping them, while doctors and NGO workers accuse the government of war crimes. The Iraqi army is reportedly preventing medical supplies from entering the cities.
The Iraqis, the “liberated” nation Bush had envisaged moving towards democracy and living in freedom, are captives of their own leaders, they are captives of their fragmented society and they are captives of the legacy left by American and British forces. Moreover, they are trapped in this captivity and are not allowed to escape it. They are not allowed by those in power and they are not allowed by those with the power of weapons -in Iraq, in the wider Middle East and in the West. Ultimately, it is the interests that are being fought on Iraqi soil that hold the population captive.
The interests are political, financial, regional and wider foreign and they are the interests of local terrorist gangs, insurgents and political elites. Ironically, this has come as a result of an invasion that was purportedly done in the interest of the Iraqi population and it is they who have paid the highest price, with their freedom and their lives.
On the contrary - I'm still in favor of limited ground engagement, where we can do quite a lot of good for little payment. Which makes your post above no less a strawman.
Limited by what? How many casualties we can stomach? Our involvement will bring more recruits to ISIS and more misery for the people. Muslims have to fight this war or it means nothing. You know like invading Iraq meant nothing except more civilians being killed.
You are deluded if you think there was any peace for the Iraqi people either when we were there OR after we left.
https://www.iraqbodycount.org/analysis/beyond/blurring-war-and-peace/
Which is why air strikes alone won't solve anything. If ISIS loses all their ground, then they lose who they are and just become another nameless terrorist organization with no access to resources or heavy equipment.
I'm confused. Resources and heavy equipment are very vulnerable to attacks from the air. It's when they hole up with civilians in the cities that require ground troops. ISIS would just love to lure us into that.... Why do you want to help them?
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