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Subject: The Irresistible Force Meets The Immovable Object
SYSOP    9/15/2014 6:46:00 AM
 
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avatar3    Hummm   9/15/2014 9:25:46 AM
The President in a televised speech cited Yemen as a "successful" military intervention. If this quagmire is a success then what is his definition of failure?
 
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HeavyD       9/16/2014 1:48:58 AM

The President in a televised speech cited Yemen as a "successful" military intervention. If this quagmire is a success then what is his definition of failure?


One where we spend the better part of a trillion dollars, with 4500 KIAs and tens of thousands of WIAs trying to bring democracy to people who have greater tribal allegiance than national aspirations for democracy?!?
 
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WarNerd       9/16/2014 3:48:58 AM
One where we spend the better part of a trillion dollars, with 4500 KIAs and tens of thousands of WIAs trying to bring democracy to people who have greater tribal allegiance than national aspirations for democracy?!?
We are more than likely to spend more than that with the President’s plan, just over more years of unresolved warfare.  The last time a strategy like this was applied to a major insurgency resulted in major mission creep under Kennedy and Johnston to become the Vietnam War.
 
For openers there is the “No boots on the ground” maxim which prevents US forward air controllers and intelligence needed to deliver US effective tactical air support.  Currently we can do little more than blunt ISIL offensive operations by limiting their ability to mass for attacks.  We are almost totally dependent on Iraqi assets for intelligence and require extensive drone usage to validate targets, and have extremely limited post strike assessment capabilities.  This is a known problem from the Somalia and Yemen operations that the Presidential strategy is modeled on, with the Kosovo War illustrating the shortfalls even better if ISIL decided (they won’t) to fight a conventional war.
 
Then there is the mess called Syria.  The Presidential strategy doesn’t explain how 5,000 (if they can vet them) ‘moderate’ (they aren’t) local insurgents are supposed to stand up to the latest estimates of 30,000 to 50,000 ISIL troops.
 
The current strategy’s shortcomings are obvious even to the majority of the Democrats in Congress.
 
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manny       9/17/2014 4:38:36 AM
Problem is Obama is a moron who took all the military troops out of Iraq, so now some people expect this same moron to be able to effectively fight ISIS. This is moronic. In addition to being a moron Obama is also arrogant, which means he would never admit to his previous decision being moronic, so nothing can change. It's a hopeless situation.
 
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