Dempsey: No direct action for US troops in Iraq

The Washington Times reports that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Martin E. Dempsey told reporters that American troops won’t be involved in direct action against those al Qaeda-linked insurgents in Iraq (whatever they’re calling themselves today) unless they detect a direct threat to the “homeland”;

“We may get to that point if our national interests drive us there, if ISIL becomes such a threat to the homeland that the president of the United States with our advice decides that we have to take direct action,” Gen. Dempsey said. “I’m just suggesting to you we’re not there yet.”

His remarks follow significant hand-wringing by administration critics who argue the Pentagon lacks a clear strategy around what has, during recent weeks, become a slowly mounting deployment of U.S. military assets back to Iraq — more than 2 years since U.S. forces withdrew after an eight-year occupation.

I guess that’s as close to the administration’s intent in Iraq as we’re going to get. But, surely, folks can understand why critics of the administration are wringing their hands – the White House has had six months since the fall of Fallujah to communicate a strategy to rescue Iraq, but we’ve heard nothing but promises of aircraft and weaponry – promises which haven’t come to fruition. Now, suddenly there are several hundred pairs of boots on the ground.

Meanwhile, Reuters was warned that thousands of “sleeper cells” are wandering the streets of Baghdad waiting for a signal to attack that city in support of a final surge on the capitol from the insurgents;

The officer told the news agency that there are roughly 1,500 sleeper cell members inside Baghdad and another 1,000 just outside the capital.

“We are ready. It can come any minute,” an alleged member of one such sleeper cell told Reuters. “We will have some surprises,” he added. The news agency said that any time a stranger approached during its interview with the man he would hide his face with a baseball cap and stop talking.

One member of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) contacted Reuters from Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, and said that the terrorist army fully plans to take the capital.

“We will receive orders about Zero Hour,” ISIL member Abu Sa’da told the news service Thursday.

Now, I’m not sure if the administration would consider an attack on the Green Zone and the Americans working there an attack on “the homeland”, but I’m pretty sure that an attack there would probably drive the final nail in the coffin of this administration in regards to public opinion. Americans of all political stripes have lost confidence in this administration.

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War