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Peter1469
11-30-2015, 07:27 AM
U.S. senators call for 20,000 troops in Syria and Iraq (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/29/us-mideast-crisis-usa-military-idUSKBN0TI0US20151129#UEtBiFiEZxRuRRDa.97)

The problem is the ways and means do not support the stated ends.


Two senior U.S. senators called on Sunday for Washington to nearly triple military force levels in Iraq to 10,000 and send an equal number of troops to Syria as part of a multinational ground force to counter Islamic State in both countries.


Republicans John McCain and Lindsey Graham criticized President Barack Obama's incremental Islamic State strategy, which relies on air strikes and modest support to local ground forces in Iraq and Syria, and said the need for greater U.S. involvement was underlined by this month's Paris attacks.


"The only way you can destroy the caliphate is with a ground component," said Graham who is seeking his party's presidential nomination. "The aerial campaign is not turning the tide of battle."


McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, recently proposed intervention in Syria by a European and Arab ground force backed by 10,000 U.S. military advisers and trainers.

donttread
11-30-2015, 07:30 AM
U.S. senators call for 20,000 troops in Syria and Iraq (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/29/us-mideast-crisis-usa-military-idUSKBN0TI0US20151129#UEtBiFiEZxRuRRDa.97)



The problem is the ways and means do not support the stated ends.

You've got to be kidding?

Peter1469
11-30-2015, 07:33 AM
You've got to be kidding?

Expand on your question so I can respond.

donttread
11-30-2015, 07:38 AM
Expand on your question so I can respond.

Why don't they just get it over with and declare a constant state of war against anyone they choose, whenever they want

Peter1469
11-30-2015, 07:40 AM
Why don't they just get it over with and declare a constant state of war against anyone they choose, whenever they want

Dumb idea.

del
11-30-2015, 07:45 AM
graham would have made an excellent wave.

sadly, he was born too late.

texan
11-30-2015, 11:07 AM
Everything will be fine until they attack here. then Toby Keith's song will make a comeback to number one.

BTW national security has risen to the top concern, nice job Obama.

The Xl
11-30-2015, 11:37 AM
It never fucking ends.

domer76
11-30-2015, 11:43 AM
Dumb idea.

So is 20000 troops

Matty
11-30-2015, 01:20 PM
U.S. senators call for 20,000 troops in Syria and Iraq (http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/29/us-mideast-crisis-usa-military-idUSKBN0TI0US20151129#UEtBiFiEZxRuRRDa.97)



The problem is the ways and means do not support the stated ends.
Assholes

Peter1469
11-30-2015, 01:53 PM
So is 20000 troops

I said that. 20,000 is not enough to do anything meaningful. Unless you move through, shoot everything, and leave.

domer76
11-30-2015, 02:40 PM
I said that. 20,000 is not enough to do anything meaningful. Unless you move through, shoot everything, and leave.

Double that is double stupid. Quadruple - same ratio applies.

Peter1469
11-30-2015, 03:01 PM
Double that is double stupid. Quadruple - same ratio applies.

It is all about Ends, Ways, and Means. Few here understand the meaning of that. The press doesn't.

del
11-30-2015, 03:05 PM
yeah, it's a real mystery, all right

lol

Ethereal
11-30-2015, 03:12 PM
We had tens of thousands of combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan for over a decade and that failed to achieve any semblance of stability or containment in either country. If anything, those occupations seem to have had the opposite effect on the region. Not only that, but it cost this country massive amounts of blood and treasure at a time when our debt is reaching catastrophic levels. That doesn't even take into account the horrible humanitarian toll that US invasions and occupations exacted on the region.

So instead of learning from their massive, terrible mistakes, lunatics like McCain and Graham are doubling down on their failed, myopic policies, insisting we do more of the same with no evidence or reason to support it. The fact that these two are still taken seriously on foreign policy is a testament to the absolute breakdown of the US system of government. In any other context, they would have been removed from their positions long ago in utter disgrace.

And, of course, the typical spineless neo-con chicken-hawks will cheer this folly while calling into question the patriotism of dissenters, even if those dissenters have served in these moronic wars and they (the chicken-hawks) have not and never intend to.

The only way this insanity will end is when the older generations* are pushed out of power and their horrible, asinine foreign policies thrown to the wayside, but that appears to be at least another decade away, if not more. So until then, things are only going to get worse.

*Disclaimer: I realize not all older people are in favor of this crap, but there is no denying that the overwhelming majority of people pushing these interventionist boondoggles belong almost exclusively to the older generations.

donttread
11-30-2015, 05:45 PM
Dumb idea.

How does it differ from the past 14 years?

donttread
11-30-2015, 05:47 PM
I said that. 20,000 is not enough to do anything meaningful. Unless you move through, shoot everything, and leave.

I'm using a math format that tells me it's 20,000 too many

donttread
11-30-2015, 05:48 PM
Everything will be fine until they attack here. then Toby Keith's song will make a comeback to number one.

BTW national security has risen to the top concern, nice job Obama.

Don't you think us killing people in their countries is causing that

Green Arrow
11-30-2015, 07:22 PM
Somehow, I'm not surprised it was McCain and Graham.