16 times Obama said there would be no boots on the ground in Syria

[grahamhgreen]

"Many of you have asked, won't this put us on a slippery slope to another war? One man wrote to me that we are 'still recovering from our involvement in Iraq.' A veteran put it more bluntly: 'This nation is sick and tired of war.' My answer is simple: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria. I will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan. I will not pursue a prolonged air campaign like Libya or Kosovo. This would be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective: deterring the use of chemical weapons and degrading Assad's capabilities."

More of his misleading statements here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2015/10/30/16-times-obama-said-there-would-no-boots-ground-syria/74869884/

Those who would involve the US in a perpetual war for profit must be jumping for joy.

[TwilightGardener]

1. Obama plays to the Washington Post editorial board's tune. If they don't suddenly lavish him with

praise and pat him on the back for finally doing what they want, I'll be stunned.

[arcane1]

2. "Those boots won't be on the ground, per se, but on sidewalks and asphalt and stuff"

I'm hoping they come up with a better excuse than that. I won't be holding my breath.

[jeff47]

21. They're going to equip the soldiers with sneakers. (nt)

[HassleCat]

3. Good vs Evil

Americans are conditioned to think there is a good guy and a bad guy. The handsome, clean cut young man with the white hat does not want to fight. Violence is against his Christian beliefs. But the ugly, mean man in the black hate backs him onto a corner by kidnapping his girlfriend, Sweet Sue. So the man in the white hat agrees to meet the man in the black hat at Noon in the street. The man in the black hat draws first, wounding the man in the white hat, but the man in the white hat has a true aim, because he has Jesus on his side, and he kills the man in the black hat. And Sweet Sue embraces him. And they ride off into the sunset.

Oh, you thought I was describing a movie. Sorry. US foreign policy in Vietnam, Iraq and Syria.

[grahamhgreen]

5. And the man in the white hat couldn't afford a gun, so he asked all the townspeople to get

together and buy him a six shooter, 600,000 rounds of ammo, and Apache attack chopper, a dozen aircraft carriers, and a couple hundred F-35's.

The townspeople, terrified of the black hat guy, complied and put themselves 8 trillion dollars in debt.

The white hat heads out to the street, aims at the black hat, but only wounds him, so the white hat ask for more money to pursue the black hat, into eternity, so help me God.

[razorman]

47. That attitude is not unique to Americans. It is human nature.

Politics is all about money and power. Always has been. Always will be. All governments lie to their people. The bigger the government, the bigger the lie.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Yep, the MIC is jumping for joy, all right. The war machine must be fed.

[Doctor_J]

6. He evolved

Just like Mrs Clinton

[phleshdef]

7. I'm not pleased with this move at all, but lets keep perspective, its 50 commandos.

I'm not saying that as some apologist, I'm just stating an objective fact.

[TwilightGardener]

9. You think they're telling the truth on numbers and mission?

Because we only found out last week that we've had troops leading raids in combat in Iraq. When one of them died.

[phleshdef]

10. Not entirely. But people are acting like we are sending 100k+ troops into Syria or something.

The reaction isn't exactly proportional to the thing that is being reacted to.

[TwilightGardener]

13. My reaction is, what necessitates a ground operation in Syria? We supposedly

have at least some partners on the ground with Kurds, we worked with them at Kobane. We probably had special forces with them, too, but kept it quiet. But our mission in Syria was simply to keep ISIS from running back and forth over the border from Iraq, deny them a hiding place--that's what was said at the time, last year. What's our mission NOW, and how does Russia and Iran's presence in Syria affect it? The mission should be the focus, not the numbers, really. Do we have vital enough national security interests in Syria that we should begin or increase our ground presence there?

[phleshdef]

25. Well its suppose to be an operation to assist in coordination.

I honestly believe President Obama is trying to make some impact with minimal resource investment (ie, as few as possible put in harm's way)... if that were not the case, he would send a whole lot more in than that.

[former9thward]

58. The operation in Iraq started like that.

Now it is up to 3,500 troops. And it is Obama's war, not Bush.

[grahamhgreen]

14. We been at war for 15 friggin years! Escalation has yeilded terrible results. They

don't know what they are doing.

Or, if they do, their goals are antithetical to American prosperity, and world stability.

[phleshdef]

26. I agree. But this isn't some massive escalation. If/when it becomes one, I will join the choir.

[grahamhgreen]

40. Great! How many is too many for you?

[phleshdef]

43. 1 is too many for me. I've already implied as much.

[grahamhgreen]

53. Me too. I don't see any evidence that our past or future involvement will

result in anything positive for anybody.

[TBF]

16. If we don't say anything now the retort will be

"but no one said anything when we started sending troops in"

It starts with 50.

[phleshdef]

23. And, if that DOES turn out to be the case, I'll temper my own reaction proportionally.

I still believe President Obama is trying to mitigate operations and troop involvement as much as he thinks he can get away with.

[grahamhgreen]

41. As commander in chief, he has little control

[morningfog]

27. You have no concept of history or of Syria, obviously.

[grahamhgreen]

11. What? You think he's dumb enough to start with 100,000 troops? No, they know how to sell war.

I'm surprised they didn't start with one.

"It's just ONE guy!", they would say, "Only TWO boots!". I looked at him in disbelief, but still he went on, "And their OLD boots, it's like retirement, sending them back to the sandbox."

I said, "Really?"

"Really!" He looked up, "Of course, just the one guy might get lonely over there so far from home..... Well, you wouldn't want him to get lonely, would you?"

[phleshdef]

31. Obama is not trying to sell war.

[TwilightGardener]

38. Well, no--what he's trying to do is conduct something on the sly and

on the cheap, out of the media discussion, out of Congress's hands, and away from our attention. I'm not 100% convinced this is all about ISIS, either.

[grahamhgreen]

42. Your buying it;)

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. Yeah, it was just a couple dozen advisors in Viet Nam, too......in the beginning.

The thing is, there are a LOT of us who remember the history of creeping wars.

[TBF]

18. Also they lied -

they said they were just sending advisors. Meanwhile the ships were headed over with chemicals right behind them.

My dad was on one of them (Navy - early 60s).

[dixiegrrrrl]

20. My husband was one of the "advisors"

He trained for a year at Ft. Rucker down here, in helicopters, and everyone talked bout their known deployment to 'Nam in 1964 while the WH was still downplaying the number of troops being sent over, and denying active troop involvement.
From all the letters I got from him for 13 months, there were a hell of a lot of patrols and shooting all over the place.

My poor brother got to go over just in time for Tet.

[TBF]

30. It was probably easier in those days to deny

without the kind of technology we have now (instant communications). My dad enlisted in '63 right after finishing high school. Boot camp in Great Lakes and then off to San Diego. He wanted to travel and even at that time folks thought there might be a draft - he figured if he enlisted he could pick the Navy and be on the water. He actually liked serving even though he didn't stay in long term. But he also was on the edge of the action being on a ship rather than "boots on the ground".

[phleshdef]

29. I get that point but lets not assume it will go that far just because that was the Vietnam case.

Again, I don't approve of this move. I just think there the reaction is over the top.

[dixiegrrrrl]

59. Broken promises about use of military in the ME are continuing to this day.

Including promises of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq.
By our current President.

Big difference between "assumption" and a safe bet based on educated experience and history.

[morningfog]

24. What FUCKING bullshit. Remember when reentry to Iraq was "just 250?"

This is more of the same. It only escalates. No end date, no clear objective.

Don't even hand me that "just 50" bullshit.

[phleshdef]

28. Yet, Iraq still has not escalated to anything significant in terms of troop numbers.

[morningfog]

36. 3,500 with regular increases and no end in sight. It is significant.

You act as if little baby wars are fine.

[grahamhgreen]

50. What's the mission?

[phleshdef]

52. Fuck if I know. I'm not okay with it, I will reiterate again.

I'm just not as upset about it as I would be if we were talking about this in 2007.

[dixiegrrrrl]

61. Pertinent question:

[gratuitous]

32. Okay, objective fact: 50 commandos

Is this all that stood between the horrible chaos of Syria, the refugee flight, the live immolation of that pilot, and all the other atrocities in the area? 50 commandos? That will solve this whole quagmire, right? What if it doesn't?

[LeftyMom]

67. Who are going in to figure out who we're arming and plan what to do when more arrive.

If that's not the most ass backward plan ever I'd sure like to hear what is.

[Wellstone ruled]

8. Is Mr. Obama just trying to

clean up a agency FUBAR? CIA?

[grahamhgreen]

12. Reminds me of the guy caught beating his wife. Police come to his house, yet he insists he must

stay cuz he's the only one who can make it right.

Everything we do there just makes it worse.

[FlatBaroque]

19. you speak as though the US has noble intentioms and we just screw up

That may not be what you meant but it came across as such. Cui Bono - The bankers, the bankers and the bankers.

[Wellstone ruled]

46. Do remember a statement made by a

Intelligence Official(retired the day before)in week of the run up to Iraq by Bush and Cheney,we are going to Iraq cause the CIA screwed things up by giving Saddam via Rumsfeld's Serile Corporation's,Poison Gas to be used against the Iranians. As well as stopping 6 million barrels of crude from going on the world market to keep the price artificially high for the major oil companies.

[grahamhgreen]

51. No, but I remember Alan Greenspan admitting it was all for oil.

[liberal_at_heart]

17. For God's sake when are we going to get to spend some money on domestic programs instead of war?

[Aerows]

35. Never.

That doesn't serve the purpose they are going for. Gas prices have dipped too low. Saudi Arabia may be in financial distress (not right this second, but down the road).

We can't let that happen.

[Blue_Tires]

33. All of those were said before Russia got involved

so they're irrelevant

[TheKentuckian]

60. That only makes it even more stupid and a hell of a lot more dangerous.

Your argument is light on sanity.

[grahamhgreen]

62. Exactly. The thought that we'd go to war with Russia over Bushs blunder in Iraq is nuts.

[Blue_Tires]

65. So we're just supposed to pack up and leave? Concede the entire region to Putin?

[TheKentuckian]

66. It is not ours to concede and Syria is not the entire region.

[newblewtoo]

34. Lets just replay the '60's

greatest hits....

It always starts with a few advisors. Time to reinstate the draft!! A professional all volunteer army is always spoiling for a fight.

[Dale Scott]

37. He's prohibited by law from running for re-election

So he's evolved.

[AngryAmish]

39. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2009/

[colsohlibgal]

44. Really

I too think of all the lives lost or impacted by Vietnam and for what?

Enough perpetual war.

[KamaAina]

45. "What I tell you 17 times is true."

[Fumesucker]

48. I'm so old I can remember when this was popular

[Skittles]

49. I don't think it is that egregious for him to change his mind as circumstances change

what is egregious, however, is Bush Inc was never held accountable for poking a stick into the hornet's nest; when Obama insisted we all needed to LOOK FORWARD, *THAT* sucked

[MisterP]

54. *shrug* what are we gonna do? not vote Dems because they happen to be warmongers

the current system will continue until it can't, and then it won't

[valerief]

55. Yeah, but the 17th is a charm. nt

[moondust]

56. Weird timing.

It's possible that this is meant to send a "message" to the parties at the current Syria talks in Vienna.

ETA: France24 reports Kerry has said the timing is coincidental.

[grahamhgreen]

57. What would that message be?

[moondust]

63. Before negotiating an agreement

sometimes the players do some chest pounding to try to show that they're tough, they're not in retreat, they're not backing down, they're playing for keeps, do not underestimate them, they are not negotiating from a position of weakness, etc., with the aim of getting a deal more favorable to their position.

[bobthedrummer]

64. K&R +

US/NATO Embrace Psy-ops and Info-War (Dan North 9-2-15 Consortium News) We, the people are STILL being "perception managed"
https://consortiumnews.com/2015/09/02/usnato-embrace-psy-ops-and-info-war