Mission Creep, Boots on the Ground, ISIS, Iraq &Syria

[J0ePaGuy11]

The thought now of sending any of our servicemen or women off to be beheaded is very disturbing. I like to be objective if possible and not joining the chorus of anti Islam with torches ablaze BUT I am afraid too many more beheadings and I lose my objectivity ...

It's not anti-Islam but anti radical Islamists, big difference and people need to understand the difference!!

[CuriousPhoenix]

He attends his intelligence briefings only 42% of the time. Reading something is completely different than hearing about it. Of course, he didn't know about ISIS. He has wanted to be the President that ended two wars and ushered in peace, so he put his head in the sand and ignored the problem. Now he will be remembered as the president that allowed the Middle East to fall into chaos and let an extremely extremist and fundamentalist terrorist cell conquer parts of Syria and Iraq. He basically let all the hard work our servicemen and women did in Iraq be for nothing. He made all those who lost their life die in vain.

Getting other countries to help is a good thing. It means that they can't attack us and decry us for being overly aggressive but in the end it will always come down to America getting its hands dirty. It would be different if other countries led the alliances but it will always be America leading.

During its 400 year history, the Roman Empire was constantly at war with one group or another. Being the only superpower made sure that every small group hated it and wanted to fight Rome. They had temple doors that were only closed when Rome was piece. They were closed only 3-4 times. America is in the same position now. People like to take on the big man on campus, that's America. Yes we will have peace but more likely than not, we will be in small and large conflicts regularly, until we the government collapses or we become isolationists again.

[Virge]

Two things.
First...........
Looking at the long list of tags for this thread it's interesting that the words extremist, terrorist or didn't come to mind when the person typed the tags. Very interesting.
Second.....
As of last night new was breaking that Former Defense Secretary, Leon Panetta's new book tells how Obama and his staff failed to listen to military advisors about leaving at least 24,000 troops in Iraq to prevent EXACTLY what has happened. This is one more piece of evidence that this entire mess is the result of incompetence from the White House.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/leon-panetta...ithdrawal/

[East]

He attends his intelligence briefings only 42% of the time. Reading something is completely different than hearing about it. Of course, he didn't know about ISIS. He has wanted to be the President that ended two wars and ushered in peace, so he put his head in the sand and ignored the problem. Now he will be remembered as the president that allowed the Middle East to fall into chaos and let an extremely extremist and fundamentalist terrorist cell conquer parts of Syria and Iraq. He basically let all the hard work our servicemen and women did in Iraq be for nothing. He made all those who lost their life die in vain.

Getting other countries to help is a good thing. It means that they can't attack us and decry us for being overly aggressive but in the end it will always come down to America getting its hands dirty. It would be different if other countries led the alliances but it will always be America leading.

During its 400 year history, the Roman Empire was constantly at war with one group or another. Being the only superpower made sure that every small group hated it and wanted to fight Rome. They had temple doors that were only closed when Rome was piece. They were closed only 3-4 times. America is in the same position now. People like to take on the big man on campus, that's America. Yes we will have peace but more likely than not, we will be in small and large conflicts regularly, until we the government collapses or we become isolationists again.

I disagree. He made a promise and kept it. People voted for him BECAUSE he made this promise...

He broke enough other promises .....though I blame the Republican JUST SAY NO TO EVERYTHING Congress for much of that....

We entered a region that has been at war for hundreds of years and will continue to be at war for hundreds of years. Removing Saddam WHO HAD NOTHING TO DO WTH 911 was the worst mistake we made...we destablilized the entire region... and Obama was not the Commander in Chief. He inherited the mess that GW left.

He is damned either way with his critics which is why I no longer pay attention to any of them. I am an extreme liberal and like most extreme liberals we have never been happy with him...but for MUCH DIFFERENT REASONS

PS...we are all being played and manipulated...it doesn't really matter who is in the Oval Office and it will probably be that way for a LONG TIME. Big Corporations/World Bank/Very Rich own our asses (and almost every politician we have) and it will get much much worse....

[CuriousPhoenix]

He followed through on those promises and now look. A bigger threat has surfaced. Yes he should have pulled out troops and scaled back our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan but he should have and was counseled to leave enough troops to deal with terrorists cells like ISIS.

Politicians make too many promises that they know that they can't keep or shouldn't keep. They will do or say anything to be elected. A president should never pander to the extremes of any party but try and steer a middle course with occasional veers to the left or right. Obama has stayed well on the left.

What I find funny is how Obama supporters always blame Republicans for the woes of Obama. You guys think that Bush had it any easier with Congress. No. He had to work with them too. Every President has to work the opposite party. You have to compromise or nothing will ever be done.

Yes congress and republicans have made it hard for Obama to do anything. But the house still passes bills that go to the senate and then its the Senate, led by Dem. Sen. Harry Reid, who won't do anything. He doesn't bring any bills passed by the Republican House to the floor. If he at least did that then both houses could work together but he rather blame the republicans on being Obstructists.

[East]

He followed through on those promises and now look. A bigger threat has surfaced. Yes he should have pulled out troops and scaled back our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan but he should have and was counseled to leave enough troops to deal with terrorists cells like ISIS.

Politicians make too many promises that they know that they can't keep or shouldn't keep. They will do or say anything to be elected. A president should never pander to the extremes of any party but try and steer a middle course with occasional veers to the left or right. Obama has stayed well on the left.

What I find funny is how Obama supporters always blame Republicans for the woes of Obama. You guys think that Bush had it any easier with Congress. No. He had to work with them too. Every President has to work the opposite party. You have to compromise or nothing will ever be done.

Yes congress and republicans have made it hard for Obama to do anything. But the house still passes bills that go to the senate and then its the Senate, led by Dem. Sen. Harry Reid, who won't do anything. He doesn't bring any bills passed by the Republican House to the floor. If he at least did that then both houses could work together but he rather blame the republicans on being Obstructists.

...because they are. They have openly stated this from Day One.

A lot of liberals dislike him for kissing their ass waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too much

[CuriousPhoenix]

Of course, the real problem behind all of this is that we are too stupid to actually vote out our own representatives in Congress for failing to do their job.

Maybe we should kick out all elected officials and vote for different representatives.

[East]

Of course, the real problem behind all of this is that we are too stupid to actually vote out our own representatives in Congress for failing to do their job.

Maybe we should kick out all elected officials and vote for different representatives.

Way too late for that. Our very corrupt Supreme Court has made it possible for the very rich entitities to buy any office they want to across the land. Faux News went to court to fight for the right to lie...and won!.

Uh..it doesn't look good.

They want us to all be slaves...been working on it for years now.

[Steve]

It's another war. It isn't the first one by a long shot. History of War - timeline

Whether this latest ugliness is warranted isn't my call. No matter how many documents, evidence, politically slanted (from every side, every country, from every citizen) media source, or even undeniable evidence (i.e. beheadings, hostages), I'm not about to be a backseat driver to the mechanics of war. I haven't walked a mile in the shoes of anyone privy to enough unbiased, trustworthy information to make such a massive decision that risks the lives of so many.

People proclaiming unyielding certainty tend to bother me. Ask anyone exonerated by Project Innocence about unyielding certainty.

Assigning blame isn't my business. The blame game seems like a fruitless endeavor. It provides a convenient target for situational anger. Finding fault with people is too easy a task, especially given the abundance of glass houses. Recrimination is a distraction from the immediate task at hand which is to preserve life and find a resolution.

War has been engrained in mankind for a very long time. Often I find ideology, money, and radical religion are the usual instigators. It boils down to something older than the world's oldest profession: Man's inhumanity to man.

That said I do recognize that sometimes it is necessary to intervene militarily when a person, or persons, jeopardize the lives of people en masse. I'm just not going to join in speculation regarding culpability. It is an endeavor with little hope of justice or solution. In today's very changed environment, money, easily disseminated disinformation, directed power play, and all too convenient manipulation of the mob who wield the torches and pitchforks of well crafted information endlessly spoon fed to them to the point of forced conclusion, those actually guilty are exonerated. By the same means others are judged guilty.

These are only my personal observations. I have come to the conclusion that for my own well being facing groups of people whose convictions are etched in stone, who are unwilling to find any middle ground of agreement, is too upsetting to witness. It runs counter to logical thinking. When I consider humanity's future I find myself succumbing to a condition to which I am already predisposed, depression.

My thoughts now are for those men and women who will in all likelihood be placed in harms way. The circumstances leading us to this juncture are largely unimportant to me. Mankind hasn't learned any lessons about war, save escalation, in aeons. People's lives matter more to me now more than anything.