The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    TRUMP: Planning US Invasiion of Syria

    By NCD on Sun, 02/19/2017 - 11:46pm |

    CNN:

    Washington (CNN)The Defense Department might propose that the US send conventional ground combat forces into northern Syria for the first time to speed up the fight against ISIS, CNN has learned."It's possible that you may see conventional forces hit the ground in Syria for some period of time," one defense official told CNN.

    But the official emphasized that any decision is ultimately up to President Donald Trump, who has ordered his defense secretary to come up with a proposal to combat ISIS before the end of the month. The move would significantly alter US military operations in Syria if approved and could put troops on the ground within weeks.....one goal of their their presence would be to help reassure Turkey that Kurdish forces are not posing a threat to Ankara's interests.
     
    Get between Turkey and the Kurds? And fight ISIS? Clear city streets of terrorists? And hold the ground as no one else is there to do it?
     
     
    "Limited war" of course.  Trump:
     
    We really have no choice, we have to knock out ISIS,” Trump said. “I would listen to the generals, but I’m hearing numbers of 20,000-30,000.”
    From Briebart, DOD spokesman:
     
    We are in the process of conducting our 30-day review of the strategy to defeat ISIS as directed by the President. We are considering a number of measures to accelerate the campaign as part of that review, but no decisions have been made. The Secretary is actively engaged with his combatant commanders and commanders on the ground to listen to their recommendations and to provide them with the resources and authorities they need to hasten the defeat of ISIS.
    Gotta speed things up in the Middle east no matter what it costs.....because....?
     
    Because peace is around the corner in the region?
     
    Because Obama wouldn't send thousands of combat troops there, so Trump has to because he is "smart", and Trump is the anti-Obama?
     
    Tens of thousands of (infidel) US troops killing Muslims will calm things down?
     
    And "remove threats to Turkish interests"? That could be a very, very long term project for us !
     
    Will we unite a heavily armed divided population with scores to settle....against us?
     
    And when we leave will things have changed for the better, in a region with 1000 year old blood feuds?
     
    'Hasten defeat" of ISIS? Who have welcomed Trump's naive and belligerent attitude towards Muslims, imagining "bloody battles and great chaos"..
     
    And whose terrorist fighters will just fade into the civ population, attack our troops with IED's, wait us out, and emerge again when we are gone.
     
    No. Obama's plan of going slow and letting local forces take and hold ground, with limited US forces for targeting airstrikes, was a much better, far less costly, US strategy.