Obama promises Iraq intervention will be strictly limited to

[Ichingcarpenter]

Obama promises Iraq intervention will be strictly limited to “bombing and fighting and, you know, whatever”

WASHINGTON–as President Obama ordered airstrikes in Iraq, he reassured a skeptical American public that he was not making an open-ended military commitment. Instead, he pledged that American intervention would be strictly limited in scope to “bombing, and maybe some fighting, and, you know, whatever sort of seems like a good idea at the time.” He also noted that he had put a non-negotiable time limit on military involvement, promising that it would last no longer than “a while, or until we win.”

The White House announcement immediately brought relief to worried citizens. “I was afraid this was the beginning of another quagmire,” said Tom Dallard of Sheboygan, WI. “But now I figure the worst case is a long, unproductive war.”

Republicans rallied behind the President, but their support came with warnings. “If we’re going into Iraq, we need to go in all the way,” said Sen. John McCain (R–AZ). “I expect that an invasion of Iraq will result in a lot of American soldiers being killed, so if we don’t invade, then we’ll be dishonoring their future sacrifice.”

http://twissblog.com/2014/08/08/obama-promises-iraq-intervention-will-be-strictly-limited-to-bombing-and-fighting-and-you-know-whatever/



The US bombing its own guns perfectly sums up America’s total failure in Iraq

When President Obama announced US airstrikes in Iraq, most observers understood that the US would be bombing members of ISIS. What many did not know was that, in a twist of such bitterly symbolic irony that it could only occur in the Middle East, the US would also be bombing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of American military equipment.

Here's why: in the decade since the 2003 US-led Iraq invasion, the US has spent a fortune training and arming the Iraqi army in the hopes of readying it to secure the country once America left. That meant arming the Iraqi army with high-tech and extremely expensive American-made guns, tanks, jeeps, artillery, and more.


But the Iraqi army has been largely a failure. When ISIS invaded northern Iraq from Syria in June, the Iraqi forces deserted or retreated en masse. Many of them abandoned their American equipment. ISIS scooped it up themselves and are now using it to rampage across Iraq, seizing whole cities, terrorizing minorities, and finally pushing into even once-secure Kurdish territory. All with shiny American military equipment.

So the US air strikes against ISIS are in part to destroy US military equipment, such as the artillery ISIS has been using against Kurdish forces.


It's not just ironic; it's a symbol of how disastrous the last 15 years of US Iraq policy have been, how circuitous and self-perpetuating the violence, that we are now bombing our own guns

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/8/5982501/the-us-is-now-bombing-its-own-military-equipment-in-iraq

[woo me with science]

1. K&R Here we go again.

It's Groundhog Day.

We have propaganda-induced amnesia for our own experience. How do we refocus this country from the US-created crisis of the day to the CYCLE of war and the behaviors of our MIC that perpetuate it? It's far past time to demand overall change in behavior from the MIC instead of constantly reacting to the next humanitarian crisis we helped create...If we don't see that each new crisis invariably leads to expansion and continuation of the cycle...

Your post here, and this post: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025355401

should have hundreds of recs.

[JEB]

2. It's the long awaited jobs program.

Gonna need a lot more guns and bombs. Death spiral. Quagmire. If they spend enough it will justify killing Social Security (circumstances change blah blah, it's for a good cause blah, blah).

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. Watch the banking stocks on Monday

Also related defense industry stocks.

[JEB]

4. Yep, easy money.

I don't know why everybody doesn't do it. Like picking the low hanging peaches. The dead people are just part of doing business. Don't sweat the small stuff.

[TheSarcastinator]

5. that sounds vaguely familiar -- where have I heard that before???

oh, yeah:

"Following the return of the delegation in November, a report was presented to the President by General Taylor that proposed a "limited partnership" (...) The President accepted the Taylor recommendations, and the number of U.S. personnel grew steadily during 1962. U.S. advisors in the field rose from 746 in January to over 3,400 by June; at the end of the year, the entire U.S. commitment was 11,000, including 29 U.S. Army Special Forces detachments. Despite the expanded U.S. presence, by 1963 South Vietnam had lost the fertile Mekong Delta to the Vietcong."
http://www.eagleton.rutgers.edu/research/americanhistory/ap_vietnam-escalate.php

Best of intentions and all that, you know.

[bigtree]

6. bombed some folk's weapons

“Talking of patriotism what humbug it is; it is a word which always commemorates a robbery. There isn't a foot of land in the world which doesn't represent the ousting and re-ousting of a long line of successive 'owners,' who each in turn, as 'patriots,' with proud swelling hearts defended it against the next gang of 'robbers' who came to steal it and did—and became swelling-hearted patriots in their turn.”

―Mark Twain

[woo me with science]

7. Rumsfeld: "It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months"

"I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today would last five days, or five weeks, or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that."
--Donald Rumsfeld, November 14, 2002

"It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months"
-- Donald Rumsfeld, February 7, 2003

"I think it will go relatively quickly. Weeks rather than months."
-- Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003

"No one is talking about occupying Iraq for five to ten years."
-- Richard Perle, March 9, 2003

"It could be that, absolutely."
-- George W. Bush, when asked of the United States would have troops in Iraq for the next ten years, January 11, 2008

Source: The War in Quotes, by G.B. Trudeau, p. 40-41 Oct 1, 2008

[GeorgeGist]

8. SuperCop™.

Making things worse, here, there, anywhere.

[Ichingcarpenter]

9. Notice the satire was written one day before the NY times article

Obama Warns of ‘Long-Term’ Iraq Strikes

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR and TIM ARANGO AUG. 9, 2014

NY Times


You can't make this shit up.

[woo me with science]

10. kick

[Mnemosyne]

11. Pathetic and very sad. Satire or not, too true. nt

[woo me with science]

12. kick

[Enthusiast]

13. K&R! This post should have hundreds of recommendations!