Boots on the ground on Mount Sinjar
Pinto Nag sends us a link to an MSN article which reports that couple of US troops have already been on Mount Sinjar where all of those refugees are hiding out from ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State. It looks like they flew in under the cover of night and then safely back to Kurd Land. I doubt that they’ll be able to get away with that again now that it’s been broadcast to the world.
“They were there last night and they did an assessment,” said the official, saying this occurred early on Wednesday in Iraq.
A second U.S. official said fewer than 20 personnel were involved in the assessment of the situation and all had returned safely to the Kurdistan capital of Arbil by military air.
The United States has not ruled out using ground forces in an operation to extract thousands of desperate civilians trapped on the mountain by Islamist militants, but they will not engage in combat, a senior White House official said earlier.
I deal with a terrorist on a daily basis and I know that if I sneaked in somewhere and back out and then made it public knowledge, my personal terrorist would make a big deal about it and plug that particular hole in his defenses. I suspect that will be the case here, too.
I don’t know why this administration has to broadcast everything that the troops do – especially when that will only put troops in jeopardy. They can’t give us insight into the grand plan, but they like to brag about the things that the troops get away with – once.
Putting one and one together;
The Pentagon has positioned MV-22 Osprey troop transports in northern Iraq amid speculation that American forces could be used to help evacuate people threatened by Islamic militants.
The Ospreys were used Tuesday to move 129 additional U.S. military personnel to the city of Irbil and they remain in the area, Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren told reporters on Wednesday.
“They’ll stay there until they’re no longer required,” Warren said.
Warren did not say how many Ospreys are there, but a defense official told Stars and Stripes that it’s “a small number.”
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
It’s that ‘feel good’ thingy that these children grow up with. Two generations, maybe? And they can’t spell, don’t understand basic grammar, puncutation, or math, they have the vocabulary and comprehension of donut holes and have to take remedial English and arithmetic in college, but they all ‘feel good about themselves’.
Okay, if you don’t understand it, neither do I.
But my best guess at this point is so that people can ‘feel good’ about the fact that bodaprez is ‘doing something’.
I shudder to think what kind of massacre of our people will occur if an actual stealth or secret operation ever takes place.
I spent 2006-2007 in Sinjar on FOB Nimur on a BTT supporting the Border Police. All this news on happenings in Sinjar has me thinking of what has happened to all of the people we worked with, not to mention our local Yezidi terp’s. The mountain is a bitch to move up, and I remember it actually snowing enough on Christmas 2006 to cover it.
Huh? So are they going through with it or not? Kirby said it was “less likely.”
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=122922
Looks like conditions have improved to the point no rescue missions are needed.
This is what turned up last night.
http://news.msn.com/world/us-says-rescue-mission-for-iraqs-yazidis-less-likely-after-visit
These were the breaking news alerts about it:
Only 1,000 Yazidis still trapped on northern Iraq’s Mount Sinjar, UN says – @dpaEnd of alert
Iraq crisis Aug 13, 2014, 11:40 PM GMT (14h)
More: US assessment team finds fewer Yazidi refugees in Iraq than previously feared, refugees in better condition than thought – @DeptofDefense
Can such a report from the Glorious Leader’s administration be trusted? Based on their track record, I give it even money that the real report was, “more than we thought, worse than we thought.” But now they need an excuse for the Glorious Leader to break the promise he made to break the earlier promise he made.
Dellilah T. Still a thousand folks are a LOT to organize and get loaded onto choppers and off to safety. A LOT of exposed ground time even if IS doesn’t show up. Of course they will and when they do, the Yazidi refugees, being for very real reasons, fearful and panicked will be like herding cats to get and keep them together for anything resembling an organized evacuation. Especially when bullets, rockets and mortars are coming in. God forbid, one helicopter is lost and they will be 1000% more fearful of getting on board and leaving in an orderly manner. These are not troops trained to evacuate under fire, they are frightened civilians who have seen their friends and family members murdered and tortured horribly. Then, there is the Obama equation to consider. The Obama equation goes something like this. “Well we’ll send troops onto Africa to get those kidnapped girls back from Procol Harem. No wait, it’s not big enough so table that until next year. Now to the Yazidi refugees thing. There’s ONLY 1000 or less there now? Well maybe we need to rethink this evacuation thingy. How about this. Drop lots of food, water and toilet paper…(excuse me…Um hum, Um hum, okay), well I was just informed they aren’t big on toilet paper so that’s a tax savings. How about we drop them some Kindle Fires? They get books in their language there right? No WiFi eh? Wow I thought everyone had WiFi. Who knew? So the Kindles are out, again add that to the press release as savings we found for taxpayers. How about we drop them some nice…leaflets? I bet we can get box loads of the, what’s it called Kerry…yea, OH YEA, “The WatchTower” magazine. Plus the Mormons will love us for that! (Excuse me…um hum, uh hum, oh yea.) Sorry not the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witness folks will love us for it. Yea I can see great poll numbers on this one. In the meantime, tell the press we are all over the situation and Hagel my friend, lay off that whole, “the… Read more »