When you assess the Obama faux pas and disaster in the Middle East, one does find a parallel with the theme, “Dumb and Dumber.”
As Written By Allen B. West:
I’ve never seen the movies featuring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels, “Dumb and Dumber.” However, we certainly have a case where life is imitating art. I believe when you consider the Obama administration’s national security and foreign policy, well, you don’t just have dumb and dumber, you have the “Three Stooges,” — Moe played by Barack Obama, Larry played by John Kerry and Curly played by Ash Carter. These three stooges have led this nation down the path of abject incompetence and utter embarrassment on the global stage. And their insidious band-aid approach to try and provide the optics of action and “toughness” only exposes our men and women in uniform to horrific dangers — as the truly stupid rules of engagement endangers their lives.
As reported by Fox News: The Pentagon is seeking to send another 500 U.S. troops to Iraq, in addition to the 400 that arrived over the Labor Day weekend, two military officials tell Fox News – a development that comes amid a new wave of attacks.
The Pentagon in July first received approval to raise the troop number in Iraq to 4,647, from a previous authorization of 3,870 in January.
If President Obama signs off on the military’s plan for more troops, the number would rise above 5,000. There are other U.S. troops inside Iraq that the Pentagon claims are on “temporary” assignments, though some of these deployments last up to one year in country. Counting these troops, the new forces going to Iraq will push the unofficial number of American forces on the ground in Iraq to over 6,000 troops.
The new U.S. troops in Iraq will remain in an “advisory” capacity, officials said. But U.S. troops have increasingly found themselves in danger in Iraq.
In addition to a rocket attack suspected of containing a “mustard agent” earlier this week, nearly 500 U.S. troops at a base 25 miles south of Mosul have been attacked four times in the past week in conventional rocket attacks, Fox News is told.
An official with knowledge of one of the attacks said one rocket landed “real close” to U.S. troops.
“There is a real danger” U.S. troops face in Iraq right now, the official said.
Three U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq fighting ISIS.
Officials said the planned deployment of 500 additional troops would not be going to Qayyarah Airfield, the base 25 miles south of Mosul, but elsewhere in the country as the U.S. military ramps up efforts to support Iraqi forces in a ground assault on Mosul expected to kick off in the next few weeks.
I’ve shared this before and will repeat again: this represents the two words everyone in the military hates to hear: “mission creep.” It is when one chooses to drip drip, by piecemeal, troops into a combat zone with no specified mission, goal or objective. And let’s be honest, our men and women in Iraq are not in an advisory role; they are in a combat zone and they are being engaged. MSG Wheeler, US Army Delta Force, and PO2 Keating IV, US Navy SEAL, both lost their lives in Iraq, which is a combat zone, not an advisory mission.
So now Obama has deployed two units that are Battalion sized, and for what? Here is the person who was so arrogantly proud of himself for withdrawing all American troops from Iraq — now we have 6,000 there, yep, that is dumb.
But what’s dumber, is to deploy these troops into the Iraqi combat zone of operations and not allow them to engage and fight the enemy. Obama has just used them as an optic and exposed them to the enemy, dangerously so.
Let me take the time to explain the dumber part of Obama’s “strategy” — if you can call it that. I was a career artillery officer and I know a little thing about what we call counter fire operations. That means the ability to destroy the indirect fire capability of the enemy. There is no reason why our troops in a base 25 miles south of Mosul should be receiving “incoming” fire from ISIS. Their base should have counter battery radar systems deployed and the base should be classified as a CFZ, critical friendly zone. That designates the base as a priority zone in the radar system so that any projectile fired whose trajectory appears to violate that zone, will immediately have its point of origin computed, and I mean in seconds. That data can be transmitted to an artillery element that can take the point of origin coordinates and immediately return fire. A good counter fire drill can have rounds going back downrange at the enemy within three minutes.
So my question to “Moe” (aka Barack): did you deploy counter battery radar and artillery with these ground troops stationed at Qayyarah Airfield? Are there attack helicopter assets able to launch and conduct deep strike operations against these ISIS firing areas? Are there deep strike Army rocket systems deployed in order to provide SEAD (suppression of enemy air defense) fires paving the path for these rotary wing attack aviation assets?
Tell me, Moe, what exactly are these 400 and 500 deployed troops there to do? Heck, did Curly consult and advise you on capability, capacity and mission for the nearly 6,000 you have REDEPLOYED back into Iraq?
A few months back, we shared with you a concern of the military that Obama would use our forces, our men and women, for a political optic close to the election. It appears that may be coming to fruition. Obama — it’s kinda fun to refer to him as Moe — is building up combat forces on the ground, but he has no clue what to do — or should I say, Valerie Jarrett and Susan Rice are not allowing them to conduct any operations. Why do we have nearly a Brigade Combat Team sized element, 6,000 troops, on the ground in Iraq — and they are getting rocketed, including by a suspected mustard agent? Now, if this were a Republican president, the liberal progressive media would be questioning every move in Iraq, every deployment, and with precision scrutiny. Nah, this is their guy, Barack Obama, so he will not be challenged. Think about this, the same Obama has threatened to veto the FY 17 National Defense Authorization Act, yet he keeps deploying them into Iraq — a place he declared combat operations were ended… Someone did not get his memo.
Obama will tentatively position our troops to get involved in something he has no desire to see to completion. Obama has no idea how to defeat ISIS. Vladimir Putin has rendered Obama neutered in the Iraq-Syria zone of action. The Iraqi Army is controlled by Iran, who has its Quds Force and Hezbollah operating freely in Syria. Our forces are being fed into a region where their only true allies are the Kurdish forces, whom Obama says he finally realizes need arming support. Of course, that will be rather disturbing for his BFF Recep Erdogan of Turkey, who has dissed Obama and joined forces with Russia’s Putin — and now Turkey is conducting ground operations in Syria. And that does not ….
Full Story Here:
Is Obama really THIS dumb? Here’s what I think… – Allen B. West – AllenBWest.com