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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Sun Jul 20, 2014, 07:03 AM Jul 2014

Avoid 'mission creep' in Iraq

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2014/07/197_161270.html

Avoid 'mission creep' in Iraq
By William D. Hartung
Posted : 2014-07-18 16:33
Updated : 2014-07-18 16:33

"Mission creep" is the process whereby a military commitment made under one rationale morphs into something larger and more dangerous. That is exactly the risk the Obama administration is running in Iraq.

Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disagrees. He prefers the term "mission match," by which he seems to mean doing what is needed to get the job done without getting drawn into a major military commitment. But exactly what "job" is the Obama administration trying to get done in Iraq?

To restore morale to the Iraqi army? To decisively defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS? To stand up a broad-based, nonsectarian government in Baghdad? None of these goals can be achieved by sending in special operations forces or launching drone strikes.

The truth is that injecting more U.S. weapons, trainers or combat troops into Iraq is likely to make matters worse. U.S. personnel will come under fire at some point, regardless of whether they are called trainers or troops, and any casualties suffered could lead the U.S. military command to send additional forces to protect those already in Iraq. In fact, a recent Pentagon assessment suggests that U.S. trainers may even come under fire from their alleged allies among pro-Iraqi government forces, which are composed in significant part of anti-U.S. Shiite militia members.

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You know, I never did understand what "job" we were doing in Iraq before. And I understand it even less now.
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