Engel: “we may have some boots on the ground” in Iraq
Eliot Engel, the New York Democrat Congressman who is the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News yesterday that we may need “boots on the ground” eventually in Iraq, according to The Hill;
“Ultimately, we may have some boots on the ground there,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Engel, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, added “that’s not something I want,” but said there are no easy choices. The U.S. can’t “put our head in the sand,” he added.
Engel has consistently been more hawkish than President Obama, and called for U.S. airstrikes in Syria last summer after the chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government.
From the Fox News transcript;
Well, I don’t think we’re going to put boots on the ground the way we we did before in Iraq. I don’t think anybody really wants to do that. But we do have some boots on the ground right now, and frankly, we need to do everything we can to repel ISIS. I don’t think we have the luxury of putting our heads in the sand and saying, well, it’s over there and we’re not going to do it. I think what we’re doing now is effective and we are going to do more of it and ultimately we may have some boots on the ground there. Not something I want, but you know what, we have that choices and the worse choice is to do nothing.
CBS reports that Engel isn’t the only one getting us mentally prepared to accept a third war in Iraq for US troops;
Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson have each warned that fighters pouring into Iraq, some of them American, could be radicalized by their experience on the battlefield and return to plan attacks at home. But despite those concerns, Zarate warned, the U.S. “seems not to be acting with the urgency to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat this network the way that we did post-9/11 with al Qaeda.”
“Putting the Humpty Dumpty of the Iraqi state back together is important, but it’s not going to solve the immediate problem of the growing strength of [ISIS],” he said.
“Containment looks like defeat,” added Jeffrey. “You can’t contain these guys. You try to contain them, and you’re going to have hundreds of thousands of young men from across the Middle East either joining them or causing unrest in their own countries.”
I’m not thinking that they’ll be anymore committed to defeating radical Islam in Iraq anymore than they are at defeating it in Afghanistan. Their time to defeat ISIS/ISIL/Islamic State troops was months ago and they missed that window of opportunity with their dithering and hand-wringing. I don’t think the American people are going to get behind another deployment to Iraq under any circumstances. Especially from this President and his rudderless administration. The only thing he can be counted on is for another political decision to half-ass any involvement.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Terror War
“Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson have each warned that fighters pouring into Iraq, some of them American, could be radicalized by their experience on the battlefield and return to plan attacks at home.”
“some of them American, could be radicalized by their experience on the battlefield and return to plan attacks at home.”
Great call Holder and Johnson! Let’s play the, “state the obvious game”. You two win, hands down. You two numb nuts don’t think they were “radicalized” before they made the decision to go there?
Why on earth would Americans who choose to leave the U.S. to go there and fight for the IS, ever be allowed to come back into this country? It makes NO sense to me whatsoever. They have made their choice to be a terrorist and support the same. Their commitment to America and our values vanished when they boarded a plane to fight “us” there, as well as Iraqis, Kurds and anyone else not willing to live in the new Caliphate State. Screw them, now and forever!
If these two ass clowns are on board with letting them back in this country because they are citizens, instead of having their names on the terrorist watch list NOW (and should have been before), so if they show up again they are immediately arrested as terrorists and enemy combatants, then they both need to be tried for treason. Any terrorist acts committed by these turds they might let back in should be dropped at Obama’s and their door steps as aiding and abetting the enemy.
Sorry but this is a no brainer to me. I don’t understand why we let Americans leave the country for Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria or any terrorist supporting nation engaged in active fighting, without asking why and what their intentions are. If they are the proud, want to be martyred Muslims they usually are, they will tell the truth and not come off with, “we’re just looking for a good plate of goat meat, that’s all”.
Good gosh, what’s next?
I knew this was coming.
It is only a matter of time.
This thing in the Middle East will heat up beyond the capacity of the various nation-states there to contain it, and who will be asked to fix it – again?
Iraq arabic for vietnam Obama should learn from johnson’s mistakes.
I find it highly ironic when you comment on what others should learn. BECAUSE YOU ARE A FUCKING IDIOT THAT IS ILLITERATE IN YOUR OWN NATIVE LANGUAGE.
Hey liberty cunt,shouldn’t you be off smoking pot and cashing your govment welfare checks?
Listen you fucking knob jockey, you don’t know shit. And what do you care about Iraq anyway? You love seeing death and destruction. Those pictures of beheaded children turning you on VWP you sick fuck? Eat shit fuckwad.
E Tu, VWP?
I remember less than a year ago you were singing Obama’s praises.
What happened? Did someone pee in your kool-aid?
I could have sworn that things like this were the exact reason we have MEU’s.
Well, the ISers are threatening to drown all of us in blood, per this Reuters article.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/18/us-iraq-security-islamicstate-usa-idUSKBN0GI1WX20140818
They could start with vwpissedinhispants, for my money.
I say the US needs to put “Sandals on the Ground” preferabby while they are on the feet of douchebag hippies.
just to let everyone know what’s up in Afghanistan:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/18/us-afghanistan-violence-idUSKBN0GI1YM20140818?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=76
Seems that since the US troops are leaving, not only is the Taliban increasing its aggressiveness, the locals are now following ‘shoot to kill and ‘take no prisoners’ orders. So it’s okay for THEM but not for US?
How nice. But you see, without Karzai to back them up and let them out of jail, the Taliban aren’t able to get away with crap now.
I have a somewhat modest proposal that will settle this once and for all. We need to make about half of Iraq a federal military reservation and permanently station about half of the regular Army there for ever. Reserve and guard units can rotate in and out to train on the live ranges that occupy the rest of the former Iraq. Iraq was formed by the british in 1920 and has been unstable ever sence. It has never been a nation in the common sense of the word. This free fire zone approach will necessitate the removal of all the heretofore ungovernable natives. The Kurds have proven themselves over the years and deserve a homeland. They have hung onto the north and we should cede it to them. The Sunnis and Shiites have proven that they will never live together absent a dictator who will kill them without showing favoritism. The Sunnis need to be moved to Saudi Arabia while the Shia will be exported to Iran. I know that Iranians don’t get along with Iraqis but as coreligionists they should be forced to work something out. Along with the designation of most of Iraq as live ranges a special free fire zone would be placed in a 100 mile strip along the borders of Iraq in all directions except the border with the new Kurdish lands. There is plenty of water and oil in Iraq to support a military force of half a million or so. The entire reservation would be run by the military so we would be able to move all US diplomatic folks out. There would be no need for a status of forces agreement as there would be no Non-military personnel to require a civil administration. We could station long and short range missiles on the reservation and store nukes if we thought we needed them. There would be no need for treaties as the reservation would be sovereign US territory, much like a US Naval vessel. Hell, all of that oil will likely pay the bills for the whole place and save the taxpayers… Read more »
Good idea. This has gotten far out of hand. I hope the Kurds can hang in there and keep killing these shitheads…
According to many published reports, we have pushed between 500 and 1,000 troops to Iraq respond to the Iraq IS/ISIL/ISIS crisis. It’s disgusting and demeaning to say they aren’t boots on the ground.
Unless of course they are wearing high heels, flip flops, or Hush Puppies. If so, I stand corrected.
Unless of course they are wearing high heels, flip flops, or Hush Puppies. If so, I stand corrected.
Don’t put it past this bunch, they’re all about “lifestyle choices”.
IF we got bsck into that shithole of a country, there are three little letters that spell automatic defeat for US forces: R-O-E (Dhimmocrat style)
Apparently, the ISers claim to have killed James Foley, a US journalist who went missing in 2012 in Syria. They are also claiming that they have another US journalist, Steven Sotloff, who went missing in Syria in 2013.
Aug 19, 2014, 11:08 PM GMT (26m)
Editor’s note: More: In the unverified video of the purported execution of an American journalist, Islamic State militants also showed and threatened to execute another US journalist, believed to Steven Sotloff. – Jillian
Here is a more complete story from Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/19/us-syria-crisis-beheading-idUSKBN0GJ26S20140819?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=76
Now the ISers are declaring a ‘holy war’ against the US.
I think it’s WAY past time someone took the gloves off and bombed the living shit out of that pisshole country, regardless of collateral damage, until every f@#%king hole those things live in is flattened.
Yes, the animals sense weakness and they are doing everything in their power to exploit that weakness. Still, I can’t help but feel a certain amount of schadenfreude at all this-the media refused to show the images from 9/11 because they were afraid that they would incite the wrong emotions in the population and now how can they respond to this barbarism?
When were the 9/11/01 images not shown? They were rerun so many times in the first 18 months after that, it made me wonder just what a bunch of sickos the people in media were. They are still being rerun occasionally, as part of documentaries.
But this stuff? It is not a surprise, if it is real, but I don’t recall the VC doing anything like this to any US journalists. If these rabid animals aren’t stopped, it will continue.
I do expect to see an announcement condemning this terrible event by someone in Washington, some time this week.
On a side note, Malaysian police have arrested 19 jihadists who were planning a series of bombings in Malaysia.
http://www.malaysiasun.com/index.php/sid/224890491
Yeah, it can come here, too. How complacent are we, really?
You saw different stuff than I did then-first anniversary there was a lot of sad music and hushed tones, but no images of the jumpers (that I remember anyway).
More to the point though-the vast majority of journalists are lefties. Modern leftism is rooted in Marxism and all Marxism relies upon the idea that there are “the oppressors” and “the oppressed”. “The other” (to include Muslims) are “the oppressed”, and so their actions are to be excused. The media puts forward the narrative that pushes this idea in popular propaganda.
They helped turn popular opinion against the war effort and stuff like this is the predictable result.