Muddled Message
The other day, Marty Dempsey told Congress that in his capacity as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, if the situation warranted it, he wouldn’t hesitate to put boots on the ground. I suspect that statement was made to test public opinion on the matter, because we have 300,000,000 opinions to consider when we make foreign and national security policy when we have a populist White House. Anyway, the President reversed the Chairman’s words at MacDill AFB yesterday, according to Fox News;
The White House continued to insist Wednesday that a “combat role” has in fact been ruled out, and that U.S. troops will not be engaging the Islamic State on the ground.
Speaking at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, after visiting U.S. Central Command, Obama told troops: “I will not commit you and the rest of our Armed Forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.”
He vowed that the U.S. forces currently deployed to Iraq to advise Iraqi forces “will not have a combat mission.” Instead, he said, they will continue to support Iraqi forces on the ground, through a combination of U.S. air power, training assistance and other means.
Can you imagine what the ROE will be when the mission is defined like that? They won’t be involved in combat operations, but they’ll be aside people who are involved in combat operations.
Shortly after Obama spoke, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest clarified that Dempsey was talking about the possible need to put U.S. troops already in Iraq into “forward-deployed positions with Iraqi troops.”
Earnest said that step has not yet been necessary, but if Dempsey asks to “forward deploy” American advisers, “the president said he would consider it on a case-by-case basis.”
Yeah, put that on wallet-sized card.
Category: Terror War
Sheer fucktardery.
More incoherent goodness from the administration that brought you Benghazi, the IRS, Fast and Furious, The Affordable Care Act and much, much more.
I am waiting on pins and needles to see how President Bush gets blamed when this whole thing blows up in Obama’s face.
YEP!
Left hand, this is right hand. You two should get to know one another.
Hondo…My post and you beat me to it. But thank you.
That’s all “The Teleprompter in Chief™” could say before bolting off to the golf course?
For some damn reason I’m NOT surprised, I take it this mess is also Bush’s fault?
Well I am not a huge Marty fan, but in fairness to the general he was answering questions and he was asked what he would consider an appropriate next step if airstrikes didn’t achieve the destruction of ISIS and the Syrian and Iraqi armies were unable to finish the job.
He answered that under those conditions, if the White House was still working to defeat ISIS in totality, that he would recommend US ground troops do the job and finish off ISIS.
The White House promptly misunderstood where that was coming from, and now we have this elaborate Kabuki dance of back pedaling and “mis-statements’ that don’t mean what they say they mean.
The best part is listening to all the pundits and White House personnel attempting to explain what the General said. I heard what he said, it wasn’t all that fucking complicated nor was it an open advocacy for ground troops at this moment in time. Maybe if the White House actually had a leader or two at the helm instead of a bunch of “cover their ass” jagoffs they would have understood the General’s simple point and obviously simple use of the language in describing an alternate as yet to be determined possibility.
I won’t hold my breath waiting for a leader to emerge at 1600 PA Ave just yet.
VOV…Reading your post posed a question in my mind. If we will not commit boots to defeat ISIS, should the need truly arise, what in the hell does Obama think his new coalition of NATO and Arab buddies are going to do? Everyone who thinks NATO will step up with troops first, without ours being the bulk of those there, raise their hand.
“Indecision is a virus that will sweep through an Army and destroy its will to win…”
Henry Fonda in the movie “In Harm’s Way”, one of my most favorite John Wayne movies.
I feel bad for the folks at MacDill. I would enjoy sitting through that Obama dog and pony show about as much as passing a kidney stone.
probably why they have to be ORDERED to be there. And enjoy it.
huh?
Is it just me, or do I see some odd thing in a WH press sec’y with the last name of “Earnest”?
Earnest = sincere, straightforward, up front, believable, etc.
Yeah, that was cute, wasn’t it?
Now since Dempsey actually answered questions directly and spoke (at least part of) his mind, I’m guessing it won’t be very long before his conflicting viewpoint has him stepping down from his position.
And on a side note, why the hell is it necessary for this lame-brained adminstration to telegraph its every move to the very people who want to kill us?
(“Us” means anyone who isn’t ‘them’.)
Well, Delilah T. – if it helps, during White House press conferences maybe keep this “Earnest” in mind:
RIP, Jim Varney. Gone far too soon.
At least the enemy clearly understands that not everyone in the US is willing to give up without a fair fight. They may not have gotten that as succinctly in a good while. Can they pretend that all of us are without the will to survive? Sure, but the message was transmitted clearly to them that at least some of us will not be going down easy, and will indeed take a bunch of them with us.
If the troops won’t be there in a combat capacity, does that mean they won’t be armed, won’t be able to fight, or will only be able to fight to defend themselves? Knowing this administration, the first. Knowing this Congress, the second. Knowing this command structure, the third. Now, to see which one wins the argument.
Just give them powder-blue helmets and white vehicles and it will all be the same.
Will B. Hussein 0bama ever do anything other than mutter from his teleprompter and dart off to the golf course?
Muddled is the word that best describes this entire administration. Every statement from them must be later clarified or respun. We are at war, we are not at war, we are in a comprehensive anti terrorism operation. The only time they were ever on the same page was when they were lying about the video causing benghazi.