• Obama to set out US offensive against ISIS
    8 replies, posted
[QUOTE] US President Barack Obama is to set out his "game plan" against Islamic State militants in a speech on Wednesday. Mr Obama told NBC TV the US would degrade IS, shrink its territory and "defeat them". He was criticised last month for saying "we don't have a strategy yet" when asked about IS during a briefing. The US expanded its operations on Sunday, carrying out air strikes on IS for the first time in western Iraq, to defend Iraqi troops at Haditha dam. 'No ground troops'Speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, Mr Obama said: "I'm preparing the country to make sure that we deal with a threat from Isil." IS, also often referred to as Isil or Isis, has taken over large swathes of Iraq and Syria in recent months, declaring the land it holds a "caliphate". Mr Obama went on: "On Wednesday, I'll make a speech and describe what our game plan's going to be going forward." [/QUOTE] [url]http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29100285[/url]
Can't "shrink its territory and defeat them" without pushing them back with troops. Does this mean boots on the ground, after all?
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;45916180]Can't "shrink its territory and defeat them" without pushing them back with troops. Does this mean boots on the ground, after all?[/QUOTE] There are plenty of boots on the ground, just not US boots.
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;45916180]Can't "shrink its territory and defeat them" without pushing them back with troops. Does this mean boots on the ground, after all?[/QUOTE] Ideally it would be Iraqi troops pushing them back
[QUOTE=Megadave;45916210]There are plenty of boots on the ground, just not US boots.[/QUOTE] Those boots haven't been very effective, unfortunately. [editline]7th September 2014[/editline] [QUOTE=Oberleutnant;45916215]Ideally it would be Iraqi troops pushing them back[/QUOTE] Unfortunately what's ideal isn't always what's real. [editline]7th September 2014[/editline] That wasn't meant to rhyme :v:
[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;45916180]Can't "shrink its territory and defeat them" without pushing them back with troops. Does this mean boots on the ground, after all?[/QUOTE] The US has SOF "boots on the ground" already. If you mean sending in divisions of American soldiers, then no - it says right in the article: [QUOTE]But the strategy was "not going to be an announcement about US ground troops", he added.[/QUOTE] Obama is right to be extremely cautious about not letting this escalate beyond our current involvement of assisting Kurdish and Iraqi forces. Sending US forces back into Iraq only four years after the withdrawal would be absolutely insane and pointless.
"Pointless" isn't the word I would use.
[QUOTE=Apache249;45916671]"Pointless" isn't the word I would use.[/QUOTE] If it only fans the fires, then yes it would be pointless. I'm sure there's plenty of Iraqis who, while hate ISIS, have no love for Americans from occupying their country and wrecking it a bit for a decade.
I like to hear this kind of action being taken but I can't help but think I've heard it before, as in, like, he's said this about ISIS already.
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