1,500 additional troops

[skyraider]

Again: we could just get some old 60s newspaper clipping from the days of Nam and and they would match todays postings.

More U.S. forces are headed to Iraq.

President Obama has authorized the deployment of up to 1,500 additional troops to help train, advise and assist Iraqi government and Kurdish peshmerga forces in their fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon announced Friday. Deploying all 1,500 troops would nearly double the total U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said the added troops would serve in a “non-combat role, to expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces.”

The U.S. will establish training centers across Iraq, Kirby said, to prepare Iraqi and Kurdish forces that currently serve in lieu of American boots on the ground in the battle against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The training sites would be defended by U.S. “force protection capabilities,” however, suggesting that American troops could see combat as part of a defensive military role.
******************

I think the "Art of War" data still holds true, maybe we the US Army should try this.

The Art of War Quotes by Sun Tzu

 

[Ragman]

Again: we could just get some old 60s newspaper clipping from the days of Nam and and they would match todays postings.

Nam was another time and another place. Are you suggesting the U.S. stay out if it? It sure seems that way to me.

 

[skyraider]

Nam was another time and another place. Are you suggesting the U.S. stay out if it? It sure seems that way to me.

The Art of War: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” USA- We fight,we leave,we come back--over and over imho. I support the military, but someday we will know how to fight this enemy we call terrorism.

 

[layoutshooter]

IF we are going to fight, ANYWHERE, we should ONLY fight to win. No holds barred. Declare war, fight it to win, finish, and then leave. No more wasting lives playing games.

Since none of that will ever happen, stay home.

 

[Ragman]

The Art of War: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” USA- We fight,we leave,we come back--over and over imho. I support the military, but someday we will know how to fight this enemy we call terrorism.

IF we are going to fight, ANYWHERE, we should ONLY fight to win. No holds barred. Declare war, fight it to win, finish, and then leave. No more wasting lives playing games.

Since none of that will ever happen, stay home.

While i agree with the premise, the comparison to what happened in Nam needs to stop.

 

[skyraider]

While i agree with the premise, the comparison to what happened in Nam needs to stop.

Yes it probably does, but if you go to a VFW club meeting, it never stops...

 

[layoutshooter]

While i agree with the premise, the comparison to what happened in Nam needs to stop.

When you forget the lessons of history you are doomed to repeat it.

 

[Ragman]

When you forget the lessons of history you are doomed to repeat it.

Lessons are one thing, but the circumstaces of the conflicts are not even close.

 

[layoutshooter]

Lessons are one thing, but the circumstaces of the conflicts are not even close.

In Vietnam we were fighting a "hot" outbreak of the so called, "Cold War". Just as we did in Korea, earlier and in several other areas across the globe. We were fighting Soviet "client" forces.

In the middle east, and in several other areas across the globe, we are again fighting "client" forces. I am no longer in that business so I don't know who these forces are fighting for, who is providing the funding, etc.

The ONLY thing that may be different between the Vietnam/Cold War conflict, and this one, is which state is the "power" behind the ISIS.

We did not want to engage the Soviets, and today, it would seem, that we are unwilling to directly engage which ever state is in that position now.

The result will be the same. Endless conflict since we are ONLY treating the symptoms as opposed to taking out the disease. Wasted lives. Mounting debt.

As I stated before. Unless the United States is willing to put forth a formal declaration of war, then prosecute that war with the clear intent of winning, and ending it, we should stay home.

We have not done that since the end of WWII. The end result is evident, what we are doing does not work.