Mission creep angers Pentagon
The Military Times reports that “mission creep” in Syria has “pissed off” military commanders involved in the war against ISIS;
[The deal for U.S. military cooperation with Russia] forged by Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart could, for the first time, broaden the American-led air campaign’s target list to include al Nusra, the notorious al Qaida-linked group that is a major actor in the multi-sided Syrian civil war. Until now, the two-year-old U.S. air campaign in Syria has been limited to ISIS.
“This could be massive mission creep,” said Josh Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “The military is pissed off because they’re being asked to do two jobs now. They were asked to do one job, which is kill ISIS. Now John Kerry is asking them to do another job, which is cooperate with Russia and kill al Nusra.”
The Russians are worried that al-Nusra is a danger to the Syrian President Assad, so they want help from the US to blunt that danger. But that’s in contradiction to the US over-arching strategy to replace the Assad government. Commanders are worried that assets better used against ISIS will be redirected to assist the Russians in their overarching strategy to keep Assad in charge.
But, you know, that’s what we’ve come to expect from John Kerry making deals with folks – he doesn’t want to clear up issues apparently, he just muddies the water making things more difficult for folks on the ground, the people most directly affected by his “successes”.
All of this could have been avoided if this administration hadn’t added troops by drips and drabs. Like Desert Storm, we didn’t attack Hussein in Kuwait and Iraq until we had a force to do it in the theater. But this administration doesn’t want to look like it’s going to war, you know, Nobel Peace Prize winners that they are.
Category: Terror War
And here I thought I remember hearing democrats say how Kerry was so “principled” and “courageous” for his conduct back in the 60s (well, the verifiable stuff at least, as opposed to his conveniently-unverifiable and factually-tenuous war stories), and that he’d never flip-flop or roll over. Yeah, no surprise how that turned out.
Has sKerry been neutered yet? None of his genes should remain in the pool.
His balls have been in Theresa’s purse for years. Much like Obama has to ask Michelle to use his. As of this date, it has never happened. Not once.
Michelle ain’t got ’em. He ain’t got none.
Michelle has balls but they don’t belong to Barry. They are naturally hers like any good transvestite.
So while we want to oust Assad and I suppose have him replaced with some Muzzy Brotherhood type, we’ll help Vlad to defeat al-Nusra*, which also happens to want to oust Assad, by shifting assets from the primary chore of killing ISIS?
Perfect!
*Most likely a Muzzy Brotherhood group.
Hey, don’t confuse the argument with logic!
“Mission creep” due to Administration creeps.
Stupid SOBs (Scions of Bureaucrats)
I wonder what John “Lurch” Kerry will do to fuck all of this up as best as he can?
As someone who is extremely budget-conscious, I have to ask this question: How much is this going to cost?
Perhaps, the Russians offered to send some money in the direction of Jawn Fraud sKerry’s daughter? Maybe that’s why he’s so hot to help them out.
Wait a minute, is John Kerry asking the troops to target Nusra? Because if so, that’s screwed up. The State Dept should not be giving orders to the military, those should come from DoD.
OTOH if the orders are being properly channeled through the DoD and the regional command (CENTCOM) then what is the issue? The military exists to carry out the lawful orders of the civilian command authority.
Put another way, the military exists to execute the foreign policy of the United States. Whether they agree with that policy or not is irrelevant.
Just because it’s lawful, you don’t have to like a Blue Falcon.
The issue is that, as poorly funded as the Damn-0-crats have left the military, this mission creep means that Americans will die needlessly in a Fuster Cluck.
That is the issue.
I’m not opposed to cooperating with Russia if it may ease some tension between our two countries. I also think the ousting of Assad would be the absolute worst thing that could happen in that country.
I’m kind of holding this opinion as well. Do we really need to work towards creating another failed state, another pool of stagnant water for breeding the likes of ISIS?
In foreign policy, sometimes (often, I’d say, particularly with regards to the Middle East) the choice is not between good and bad but between bad and worse. There are no “good” options.
Actually Middle Eastern politics reminds me a lot of Robert A Henlein’s description of the concept of Entropy:
You can’t win, you can’t break even, and you can’t get out of the game. 😉
Kill them all and let God sort them out?
Seriously, they are all Islamists. Trying to pick which ones are the “moderate Muslims” at this point is beyond absurd. This should actually make their job easier to determine who is the enemy.
” But this administration doesn’t want to look like it’s going to war, you know, Nobel Peace Prize winners that they are.”
They’ve been spreading that “peace” around too, to Syria, Libya, New York City, Boston, New Jersey, California, Texas, etc. Been real effective. /sarc
It’s all part of Obama’s Operation Look As If I’m Doing Something!!! so I can see why the military isn’t happy.
Syria is a dog’s breakfast of all against all jihadis, we really should not be there.
Fighting for Assad as our official position is regime-change is sorta funny.
Unless you’re the one doing the fighting.
I believe Patton had another, unpublished reason for favoring rapid decisive action:
Higher command is loathe to countermand a surprise victory, but will often countermand a plan for victory.
He was told Trier could not be taken with available forces. He replied: “Have taken Trier with two divisions. What do you want me to do? Give it back?”
Far better we have a CinC who says “Go forth and smash and dash to grab enemy commander X, get out, and bring me his head, attached or not as circumstances dictate. Your job is Victory. Mine is managing the ankle-biters and assholes, to keep them out of your hair.”