Reports today (February 17, 2015) are that polls are showing something like 47% of Americans polled are in favor of boots on the ground in Iraq.*
It has been proposed that the Sunni countries develop a force and get rid of ISIL requiring "boots on the ground." Respected Richard Haass, president of the Council of Foreign Relations, has been one prominent person to call for such a force.** Does anyone really believe that the White House wouldn't like such a move? It is such a great idea that one wonders why the Sunni nations aren't already developing such a force? One should take into account that even Haass says such a force is a long shot. Can there be something in the Sunni psyche that we Westerners don't understand?
We need to recall that Turkey has provided a highway for radicals to join ISIL. There are Saudi's that are said to have provided ISIL with some funds.
Well, for one thing, I wouldn't be surprised if the leaders of the Sunni nation's are sitting around saying to each other, "Cool it, eventually the U.S. won't be able to resist providing cannon fodder (boots on the ground) and mop up ISIL." I don't know whether Obama will be able to last out his remaining two years with out invading Iraq again with combat troops.
I've heard it said that the Iraq army is really a loose confederation of Shiite militias. You have to wonder if the Shiites in Iraq are trainable into an army? After all we already spent 8 yrs before training them and at the first test a whole army did cut and run. I think a problem is corruption. I've heard that the leaders of that army were bribed to disappear and that some even joined ISIL In a country where corruption is so endemic (so I hear), it may be that any government forces are weak even to the point of defending themselves.
This morning I also heard on Morning Joe that the Sunni tribal leaders will not work to overthrow ISIL if Iran is involved, and they seem to be involved in such Iraq forces (militias) that are effective.
Are we trying to make something work that is not workable? The only way to hold Iraq together seems to be through a brutal dictatorship, a conclusion "we" do not like. So it seems like it is past time to let Iraq divided into three countries: Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdistan.
* http://www.ibtimes.com/obama-approval-rating-isis-slides-ground-troops-favored-more-americans-poll-1818610
** http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f5ff39a-2c39-11e4-8eda-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3S1dGTZS2 (A second option would be to create a pan-Arab expeditionary force, one with units from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and possibly Egypt. )
Showing posts with label boots on the ground. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boots on the ground. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Friday, May 16, 2014
THE DRONES OF WAR
The U.S. is actually involved in a world war against terrorists, but since there are few 'boots on the ground" there is little notice. The effort has been going on in Africa for many years, Our principal military base is in a small country in Africa called Djibouti. Though our main effort has concentrated particularly on Somalia from Ethiopia and within Yemen,* the war effort is greater than that. Apparently in 2014, we are getting ready to build a new drone base in Niger to provide reconnaissance support for the French in Mali and it is admitted that this base could also be used for attack drones.** As the war effort in Afghanistan winds down, the war in Africa is still heating up.
The use of drone attacks has been controversial in that they have been used to kill American citizen terrorists in Yemen and there has been significant "collateral" deaths and injuries of citizens. It is said that these drone attacks are leading to recruitment of people by the terrorist groups. As I have said elsewhere, however, would American helicopter gunships or boots on the ground be received better and wouldn't there be collateral deaths and injuries as well?***
In the past, airpower was not decisive in wars and many boots on the ground were needed to finish off an enemy. In some cases even hundreds of thousands of troops were not successful, as in Vietnam.
The drone attacks on terrorist groups may be having a significant effect in that on 9/11/2013, there were no terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions (There was no inflammatory video against Islam either to stir up the extremists.). This does not mean that there may not be planning underway by terrorist groups to do something spectacular in 2016 to disrupt the American presidential election just as the American Embassy hostages captured by Iran disrupted the 1980 Presidential election and led to the overthrow of President Carter by Ronald Reagan. Curiously, shortly after that election, the Iranians released the hostages. I've never understood why the Iranians preferred Reagan over Carter.
I don't know that Boko Haran in Nigeria is a terrorist group, but seems to be more of a political insurgency bent on taking over the country and converting it to an Islamic sharia law state, isolated from the West. Thus is Boko Haram a terrorist group or is what is happening in Nigeria a civil war? Think of Syria? Are the rebels terrorist groups or is it a civil war going on to displace the current President Assam? Some of the Syrian rebels are Islamic extremists, maybe with ties to Al Qaeda. Though their former leader of Boko Haram says some weird things. In a 2009 BBC interview, Mohammed Yusuf, then leader of the group, stated his belief that the fact of a spherical Earth is contrary to Islamic teaching and should be rejected[50], along with Darwinian evolution and the fact of rain originating from water evaporated by the sun.[51] Before his death, Yusuf reiterated the group's objective of changing the current education system and rejecting democracy.[52] Nigerian academic Hussain Zakaria told BBC News that the controversial cleric had a graduate education and spoke proficient English.**** But is this any more weird than some American politicians claiming that women do not get pregnant from rape or if they do, it is God's will. And I suspect that being against Darwinian evolution is as much accepted by many American Christians as it is by some Islamic groups.
* http://www.wired.com/2012/08/somalia-drones/all/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Yemen
** http://tune.pk/video/2704833/us-to-build-new-drone-bases-in-africa
***
****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram
The use of drone attacks has been controversial in that they have been used to kill American citizen terrorists in Yemen and there has been significant "collateral" deaths and injuries of citizens. It is said that these drone attacks are leading to recruitment of people by the terrorist groups. As I have said elsewhere, however, would American helicopter gunships or boots on the ground be received better and wouldn't there be collateral deaths and injuries as well?***
In the past, airpower was not decisive in wars and many boots on the ground were needed to finish off an enemy. In some cases even hundreds of thousands of troops were not successful, as in Vietnam.
The drone attacks on terrorist groups may be having a significant effect in that on 9/11/2013, there were no terrorist attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions (There was no inflammatory video against Islam either to stir up the extremists.). This does not mean that there may not be planning underway by terrorist groups to do something spectacular in 2016 to disrupt the American presidential election just as the American Embassy hostages captured by Iran disrupted the 1980 Presidential election and led to the overthrow of President Carter by Ronald Reagan. Curiously, shortly after that election, the Iranians released the hostages. I've never understood why the Iranians preferred Reagan over Carter.
I don't know that Boko Haran in Nigeria is a terrorist group, but seems to be more of a political insurgency bent on taking over the country and converting it to an Islamic sharia law state, isolated from the West. Thus is Boko Haram a terrorist group or is what is happening in Nigeria a civil war? Think of Syria? Are the rebels terrorist groups or is it a civil war going on to displace the current President Assam? Some of the Syrian rebels are Islamic extremists, maybe with ties to Al Qaeda. Though their former leader of Boko Haram says some weird things. In a 2009 BBC interview, Mohammed Yusuf, then leader of the group, stated his belief that the fact of a spherical Earth is contrary to Islamic teaching and should be rejected[50], along with Darwinian evolution and the fact of rain originating from water evaporated by the sun.[51] Before his death, Yusuf reiterated the group's objective of changing the current education system and rejecting democracy.[52] Nigerian academic Hussain Zakaria told BBC News that the controversial cleric had a graduate education and spoke proficient English.**** But is this any more weird than some American politicians claiming that women do not get pregnant from rape or if they do, it is God's will. And I suspect that being against Darwinian evolution is as much accepted by many American Christians as it is by some Islamic groups.
* http://www.wired.com/2012/08/somalia-drones/all/; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Yemen
** http://tune.pk/video/2704833/us-to-build-new-drone-bases-in-africa
***
****http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boko_Haram
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