Top general stands by claim that US boots on ground could be needed to destroy ISIS saying: ‘I will recommend…what it takes to destroy ISIS’
- Dempsey reiterated that there isn’t an 'air power alone solution' and it may take the use of force on the ground to eliminate the terrorist group
- He later indicated that ground troops ‘ could be comprised of Iraqis, Kurds and moderate Syrian opposition’ and not necessarily American forces
- His remarks came as retired four-star general David Petraeus said he thought ground forces would be needed, as well
Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, again told reporters on Friday that he would recommend U.S. ground troops take on the Islamic State if he felt it was necessary.
'I stand by the statement,' he said when asked about testimony before a Senate committee last week in which he first made the assertion. ‘I will recommend… what it takes to destroy ISIS.’
Dempsey reiterated that there isn’t an 'air power alone solution' and it may take the use of force on the ground to eliminate the barbaric terrorist group.
However, he indicated that ground troops ‘would be comprised of Iraqis, Kurds and moderate Syrian opposition' and not necessarily American forces, as was intimated from his previous remarks.
Dempsey had said last week that he may advice President Obama to boots on the ground in Iraq - something Obama has said he will not do - if the president's preferred strategy doesn't have the intended effect.
The four-star general told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee U.S. forces could engage in ‘close combat advising' if the circumstances called for it.
Hypothetically speaking, Dempsey said American troops could end up ‘accompanying' the Iraqi army during a skirmish with ISIS while taking back city of Mosul.
Dempsey revealed to the Senators that Obama told him privately 'to come back to him on a case-by-case basis' as far as boots on the ground are concerned.
The following day Dempsey told reporters that assessors sent into Iraq by the U.S. military found that 24 of the army’s 50 brigades were incapable of putting their sectarian differences aside to effectively work together.
The other 26 brigades would need additional training and more equipment, Dempsey said.
That same day Obama denied that he was considering going back on his promise that he would not put American troops into combat situations.
‘I want to be clear: The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission,' he told an service men and women at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, during a speech.
As of today, the U.S. had already dropped 272 bombs and missiles on Syria and 374 on Iraq.
Retired General David Petraeus said today that while he too believes ground troops could be needed to finish the job in Iraq and Syria, he thinks the Iraqi army may able to do it themselves, eventually.
'What we’re doing right now is disrupting. We are gradually chipping away at the strength’ of ISIS, the former Bush and Obama administration said, according to Bloomberg.
Petraeus told business executives at a Tokyo hotel that it could take ‘many years' to resolve the situation in Syria.
In terms of Iraq, he said, ‘I do believe the Iraqis can be the ground forces that can deal with this over time, but again it will be months and years, not days or weeks.'
Petraeus' opinion on the situation in Iraq is notable given his position overseeing the so-called surge in Iraq at the end of George W. Bush’s second term in office.
The four-star general went on to serve as head of U.S. Central Command and Commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan before being promoted to President Barack Obama’s national security team in 2011.
Petreaus served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency until it was revealed in late 2012 that he’d had an extra-marital affair with his biographer.
Since then, he’d mostly stayed out of the public spotlight until the U.S. reinvolved itself in Iraq earlier this summer.
'We have invested a great deal in that country, we have given them hope on two different occasions and I think it’s very legitimate [that] United States officials are supporting a process that is led by Iraqi officials,' Petraeus said in June in remarks at the Aspen Ideas Festival reported on by The Washington Times.
Petraeus said on Friday that past experience battling al Qaeda in western Pakistan proves that if the U.S. leaves Iraq to it’s own devices now, terrorist threats will rise back up.
'We have seen this elsewhere,' he said. 'You have to keep on disrupting. If you let up the pressure, then al Qaeda senior leadership will come back.’
The retired military officer said he thought the Iraqis would eventually be able to solve their own problems and indicated that leaders should have more faith in the Iraqi army’s ability to ward off ISIS.
‘I believe you should not underestimate the residual capacity of the Iraqi security forces and we should not overestimate the capabilities of ISIL,' he said.
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has accused Israel of conducting a “war of genocide” against the Palestinian people during the 50-day summer war in Gaza.
ReplyDeleteIn his speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, Abbas said the “occupying power” had destroyed the remaining hopes for peace but he still believes in a negotiated solution.
“Israel has decided that this year will see a new war of genocide perpetrated against the Palestinian people; in the same year in which this Assembly, on behalf of the people and countries of the world, conveyed the world’s yearning and determination to realise a just peace that achieves freedom and independence for the Palestinian people in their state of Palestine alongside Israel.”
Abbas stopped short of saying he will pursue war crime charges against the Jewish state at the International Criminal Court (ICC), but said that “we will not forget, nor will we forgive or allow war criminals to escape punishment.”
His speech followed Thursday’s agreement between Hamas and rival Palestinian group Fatah to work together to form a unity government to run Gaza.
More than 2,100 Palestinians were killed and some 18,000 homes were destroyed during the war between Hamas and Israel.
Sixty-six soldiers and six civilians were killed on the Israeli side.
euronews
Wait a minute -
ReplyDelete"His speech followed Thursday’s agreement between Hamas and rival Palestinian group Fatah to work together to form a unity government to run Gaza."
I thought it was Israeli occupied Gaza.
When did the Jews leave?
They have not.
DeleteThe Israeli still control the land, sea and air.
DeleteAs to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, there is an additional factor. The so-called “Palestinian autonomous areas” are Bantustans. These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli Apartheid system.
- Nelson Mandela
When the Israeli leave Palestine, Robert Peterson, we will all know it.
DeleteIt has not happened, yet.
The Palestinian President said he would seek a UN Security Council resolution to demand a “firm timetable” to stop Israeli occupation. Speaking in New York on Friday, Abbas also accused the Israelis of committing war crimes during the recent 50-day Gaza war, which ended in a ceasefire on 26 August.
ReplyDelete...
However, the resolution proposed by the Palestinians and the Arab group contradicts one being prepared by the US in cooperation with Israel, Jordan and Qatar. The American draft reportedly foresees the strengthening of the Gaza ceasefire under condition that Palestine provides Israel security guarantees while Tel-Aviv loosens its economic strangle.
If taken up for a vote, the Palestinian draft is expected to get enough support from the Security Council members to pass, with just a few abstentions, so Washington is likely to use its veto power to block the resolution.
“It is impossible, and I repeat – it is impossible – to return to the cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with the substance of the matter and the fundamental question.
DeleteThere is neither credibility nor seriousness in negotiations in which Israel predetermines the results via its settlement activities and the occupation's brutality.
There is no meaning or value in negotiations for which the agreed objective is not ending the Israeli occupation and achieving the independence of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital on the entire Palestinian Territory occupied in the 1967 war.”
...
“The time has come to end this settlement occupation,”
said Abbas. Talking about a timeframe for Israel’s withdrawal which some observers expected to be set for three years, he emphasized:
“We discussed different timeframes in our internal discussions from six months to three years, but without acceptance by the Security Council for the need for a deadline any time frame is meaningless.”
Earlier this month Tel-Aviv announced that another 1,000 acres of land near Bethlehem, in the West Bank, would become its territory to be used for new Israeli settlements.
“The future proposed by the Israeli government for the Palestinian people is at best isolated ghettos for Palestinians on fragmented lands, without borders and without sovereignty over its airspace, water and natural resources, which will be under the subjugation of the racist settlers and army of occupation, and at worst will be a most abhorrent form of Apartheid,” Abbas told the Assembly.
New York: The civil rights body behind a lawsuit filed against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots case has offered a reward of $ 10,000 to anyone who could serve him the court summons.
ReplyDeleteNew York-based legal advisor Gurpatwant Singh Pannun told reporters here yesterday that American Justice Centre (AJC) is offering a reward of $ 10,000 to anyone who will serve the summons on Modi during his various public engagements in the city over the period of next two days. The reward will be given to the person who serves the summons and brings a pictorial and video proof that the summons have been served.
The court has given three weeks' time to respond once the summons is served on Modi. However, the US government has held that sitting heads of government enjoy personal inviolability while in the US, which means they cannot be personally handed or delivered papers to begin the process of a lawsuit.
As for the headcutters, they couldn't be reached for comment. They were busy burying their vehicles.
ReplyDeleteAlso, they been instructed to avoid "electronic" communications.
DeleteNo information on how you fight a war without vehicles, or electronic communications.
DeleteRufus Parties On!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rantlifestyle.com/2014/02/22/best-redneck-inventions-time/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=nRelate&utm_term=Title2#slide_11
I meant to start w/this personal shot.
DeleteMy brother recently reminded Me of some pleasant scenes from our little redneck town:
DeleteSuicides were plentiful, almost always performed by blowing one's brains out.
There were exceptions: One guy placed his head under a lift as it was lowering a truck.
His partner who came in and witnessed the aftermath was rendered unable to talk properly .
(don't know if it was globally, or just about that incident)
Another had difficulty talking after seeing his friend, our local Football and Track Star, blow his brains out at an early age.
Doctor got high and drunk and did aerobatics over town one night before driving his plane into a dry cotton-field.
Somehow he survived w/o burning to death.
Life went on.
Kinda
"The following day Dempsey told reporters that assessors sent into Iraq by the U.S. military found that 24 of the army’s 50 brigades were incapable of putting their sectarian differences aside to effectively work together."
ReplyDelete---
Firing the Iraqi Army was the gift that keeps on giving.