Military advice to White House; caution
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the blame for the White House’s lack of a clear strategy in the war against ISIS rests on the Pentagon because, for some reason, the out going leadership, namely chairman of the joint chiefs Martin Dempsey wants to urge caution;
Top military officials, who have typically argued for more combat power to overcome battlefield setbacks over the past decade, emerged in recent White House debates as consistent voices of caution in Iraq. Their shift reflects the paucity of good options and a reluctance to suffer more combat deaths in a war in which America’s political leaders are far from committed and Iraqis have shown limited will to fight.
“After the past 12 years in the Middle East, there is a real focus by senior military leaders on understanding what the endgame is,” said a military official, “and asking the question, ‘To what end are we doing this?’?”
The end is the utter destruction of ISIS without a chance that they can reform in another entity. The goal is to make ISIS’ brand of warfare and terror too deadly to replicate. But, of course, Dempsey, the Secretary of the Army and the Army Chief of Staff are all retiring from those positions in the next few months, so they’re preserving their legacies, like the current administration – everyone wants to look like they’re doing something when really, they are not.
In the days that followed [the collapse of the Iraqi Army in Ramadi] , Obama assembled his national security team to fix a strategy that appeared to be foundering.
Like everything else this administration does in regards to ISIS, they were too late. Dempsey knew that Ramadi was going to fall to ISIS more than a month before it happened and the Pentagon did nothing to fight the relatively easier (compared to the planned assault to take Ramadi back) defensive battle. the strategy doesn’t appear to be foundering, it is foundering because a strategy doesn’t exist. But, nothing will change because this administration and any military leaders they appoint to the impending vacancies will just be biding their time for the next president.
But, given the current crop of candidates for president, I don’t see any danger to ISIS’ future.
Don’t worry, though, the Shi’ite militias produced two people to talk to the Associated Press who don’t want Americans to help them;
Noting the increased number of U.S. advisers, trainers, logisticians and security personnel, al-Amiri scoffed at the notion that an additional “450 experts will be able to win the battle.”
“There were 150,000 American troops, thousands of tanks and mortars, and hundreds of jets, and they were unable to do anything to al-Qaida in 2006 and 2007,” al-Amiri said.
So, there you go. I guess the militias get a vote on the President’s cabinet.
Category: Terror War
Jonn, it’s also possible that the Pentagon is advising caution because they’ve taken this to heart:
“No one starts a war – or rather, no one in his sense ought to do so – without first being clear in his mind what he intends to achieve by the war and how he intends to conduct it.”
Absent clear guidance from the top as to goals . . . caution isn’t exactly a bad idea.
That old Prussian gets smarter and smarter as I get older.
I’m pretty sure that they get clear guidance every half-hour.
Guidance, maybe. I’d have to see it myself before I’d buy the “clear” part, though.
I think you’re confusing “clear” with “achievable”.
This is a feature, not a bug.
I don’t doubt that any guidance received from the senior echelons of this Administration is anything besides an unachievable pipe-dream, Jonn. But, frankly, it would surprise me if it were all that clear and unambiguous.
“Solve world hunger”, “promote human rights”, “promote democracy”, or “encourage world peace” aren’t exactly what I’d call clear and unambiguous guidance regarding military goals. And that’s the kind of stuff I’m guessing the Pentagon is getting from this Administration.
Hondo, you omitted the Regime’s most important goal, fighting global war, er, Climate Change. That is what’s important .
When Obama had war-fighters in the top tiers, they attempted to tell him the truth and Obama fired them as a result. Now he has ‘yes men’ telling him what he wants to hear, and wonders why nothing is getting done?
Mr. President, tell your military what you want done, and when you want it done by, and then GET THE HELL OUT OF THEIR WAY, AND LET THEM DO THEIR JOB.
You’ll be surprised how much you’ll accomplish, if you’ll trust your military to do their jobs.
One simple ROE, that is beyond O’Bozo’s ken:
“Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war”
That should do it.
In order to have a “clear” strategy, there must first be “a” strategy.
Here ended the lesson.
And in order to have a strategy, you must first know what you wish to achieve.
“If you don’t know where you want to go – or why you want to go at all – then all roads are equally good.”
Engage the enemy and annihilate the same.
That is the strategy when dealing with the likes of Al Qaeda and ISIL, but those words will never pass Dear Leader’s lips.
He’s too occupied with planning his next vacation, fundraiser, or game of golf.
Next we’ll hear B. Hussein 0bama & Company blame Bush yet again.
Absence of stategy, absence of resolve, absence of leadership, absence of commander in chief
Mr. Obama is not trying to achieve anything. He is trying to avoid looking bad. He is surrounded by political land mines and there is no goal except political survival. He doesn’t give a flying fart on a flight deck about the Iraqis or anyone except the future of his political party.
I suspect that Mr. Bush had similar concerns but he saw value to America if he defeated Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. He valued those actions for the US, not only for the future of his party. Mr. Obama has no such values.
I don’t care if Mr. Obama is black, white, green, or paisley, he is not a competent US president and for that I hope that his legacy and his party suffers. Sure as hell he has made the country suffer with this self-centered behavior.
I am surprised they are not still publically blaming former President Bush.
That was the COMPLETE and ENTIRE strategy for about six years.
Yeah, I doubt emperor BO cares about the Dem party. They served their purpose. What matters is to become Al Gore & Clintons style mega rich when he leaves office.
Obozo has an strategy. Make America weak and the rest of thw world strong. America has to pay back to the wold all those years of eval imperial ism.
And Obozo wants the UN next. President of the Wold!!!! 111
Liberal warfare in action.
SMH.
I think you guys have it mostly wrong. He wants to leave the job of deciding what to do in the Middle East to the next person dumb enough to get the job of President. Then he won’t be blamed for his own failures, and he can golf all day long and drink highballs at the local country club.
He just does not care, period. I don’t believe that he ever did. He said and did whatever was necessary to make people slobber over him, won the first election and the 2nd one, and now he’s just counting the days, bean by bean, until he can pack it in and head to the Big Island.
He has done and said more stupid things, and pissed off more of our allies, than anyone before him in that job, and while his clumsiness and incompetence would look bad on a resume, he never has to work again, so why the hell should he give a shit about the job?
He’s leaving. I hope he becomes the most forgotten president ever.
I will be SO glad when he’s gone!
It appears that the Kurds are fielding a very capable and aggressive fighting force and showing progress. They are now pushing ISIS backward and have seized a key town on a major ISIS supply route. Good for them.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/kurdish-fighters-seize-large-parts-of-is-border-stronghold/ar-BBl9nPM
1) Target ALL U.S. military vehicles with any insignia resembling those used by ISIS, and bomb them.
2) Target all Technicals with any insignia resembling those used by ISIS, and bomb them.
3) Target any convoys that have any flag or group of individuals that have insignia resembling those used by ISIS, and bomb them.
4) Target any training camps that have any flag or group of individuals that have insignia resembling those used by ISIS, and bomb them.
5) Send 450 troops, all Special Forces, in to train the Peshmerga and then lead them into the areas held by ISIS to kill everyone that wears the insignia or attempts to attack them.
6) Problem solved, problem staying solved.
It appears that the Kurds are doing quite well against ISIS.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/kurds-deal-major-blow-to-islamic-state/ar-BBlecHc
I hope they are confiscating whatever weapons the ISers stole from the Iraqis and using them against the ISers. I also hope that their rules of engagement are not the contemptibly idiotic RofE foisted on American troops by THIS administration… but it appears that this is not a problem for the Kurds.
Kudos to the Kurds.
Word.
Kurdistan is not just a dream, it could be a reality.
Unequivocal support for the Kurdish people and nation.