Washington’s Military Addiction, and the Ruins Still to Come

Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch | Reader Supported News | May 16, 2016

Washington’s Military Addiction
And The Ruins Still to Come

here are the news stories that genuinely surprise you, and then there are the ones that you could write in your sleep before they happen. Let me concoct an example for you:

“Top American and European military leaders are weighing options to step up the fight against the Islamic State in the Mideast, including possibly sending more U.S. forces into Iraq, Syria, and Libya, just as Washington confirmed the second American combat casualty in Iraq in as many months.”

Oh wait, that was actually the lead sentence in a May 3rd Washington Times piece by Carlo Muñoz.  Honestly, though, it could have been written anytime in the last few months by just about anyone paying any attention whatsoever, and it surely will prove reusable in the months to come (with casualty figures altered, of course).  The sad truth is that across the Greater Middle East and expanding parts of Africa, a similar set of lines could be written ahead of time about the use of Special Operations forces, drones, advisers, whatever, as could the sorry results of making such moves in [add the name of your country of choice here].

Put another way, in a Washington that seems incapable of doing anything but worshiping at the temple of the U.S. military, global policymaking has become a remarkably mindless military-first process of repetition.  It’s as if, as problems built up in your life, you looked in the closet marked “solutions” and the only thing you could ever see was one hulking, over-armed soldier, whom you obsessively let loose, causing yet more damage.

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US Special Operations Forces Expanding in Iraq to Battle ISIS

LUIS MARTINEZ | ABC News | Yahoo News | December 1, 2015

Defense Secretary Ash Carter told Congress today that the U.S. would establish a special operations “targeting force” in Iraq as part of the intensified military effort to fight ISIS.

The special operations force would conduct raids, could free hostages held by ISIS, gather intelligence and capture ISIS leaders in both Iraq and Syria.

It is part of the broader role for U.S. special operations forces that Carter said would occur in the wake of the raid in late October where U.S. special operations forces helped free 70 ISIS hostages in northern Iraq. That same raid resulted in the death of Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler, the first American fatality from combat in Iraq since the return of U.S. forces to that country in mid-2014.

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‘Very Soon’ US Forces Will Arrive in Syria

Soldiers with the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion 87th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division. (photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

 

Juan Cole | Informed Comment | Reader Supported News | November 27, 2015

urkey’s government is very unhappy today about developments in Syria.

President Obama’s special envoy, Brett McGurk, said Sunday that the some 50 men from special operations forces will arrive in Syria in the very near future. But Turkey has been upset that the US troops will be deployed in support of the YPG, the leftist Kurdish party. Turkey is afraid that autonomy or semi-autonomy for Syrian Kurds with make Turkish Kurds restive.

The US has also stepped up its diplomatic campaign, with Sec. of State John Kerry commenting on the recent meeting on Syria that we could be “weeks away” from the beginning of a transition:

“”AT this time there is a genuine process which presents certain possibilities. Four weeks ago we did not have such a process. In other words, until we convened in Vienna approximately four weeks ago, we did not have a viable political process. We have found a common agreement on the principles and established a concept of giving life to a negotiation with Iran and Russia at the table. When we look at the past four and a half years, we see that this is a unique development. And we have reached the next phase in Vienna, we have determined the dates– specific target dates. In a very important manner, all the sides have agreed on a cease-fire. Currently we are only in need of launching a political process and with that, the cease-fire will go into effect. This is a gigantic step. [French President Francois] Hollande also noted this. If we can get that done, that opens up the aperture for a whole bunch of things.”

The Vienna process imagines regime talks with the ‘moderate’ rebels beginning in January, with a ceasefire in May of 2016 and new elections in May of 2017.

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Report: US troops exposed to chemical agents in Iraq are dying — and the Pentagon is covering it up

Barbara Koeppel |Newsweek | Raw Story | March 27, 2015

During and immediately after the first Gulf War, more than 200,000 of 700,000 U.S. troops sent to Iraq and Kuwait in January 1991 were exposed to nerve gas and other chemical agents. Though aware of this, the Department of Defense and CIA launched a campaign of lies and concocted a cover-up that continues today.

A quarter of a century later, the troops nearest the explosions are dying of brain cancer at two to three times the rate of those who were farther away. Others have lung cancer or debilitating chronic diseases, and pain.

More complications lie ahead.

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Unless Iraq becomes US province, things like ISIS are bound to happen – fmr US Marine

RT News | Mar 5, 2015

The US role in the fight against the Islamic State has been debated vigorously, with some believing that America should be putting forth a stronger military effort and others believing that the crisis should be left alone. RT’s Ben Swann talks to radio host, and retired Marine, Jason Stapleton about the perceived threats that ISIS poses to America and their reality.

Find RT America in your area: http://rt.com/where-to-watch/
Or watch us online: http://rt.com/on-air/rt-america-air/

US Sending 400 Troops to Train “Moderate” Syrian Opposition

U.S. military advisers board a helicopter in Iraq. (photo: Waarmedia.com)

Julian E. Barnes | The Wall Street Journal | Reader Supported News | January 16, 2015

he U.S. will deploy 400 troops to sites around the Middle East this spring as part of the military’s effort to ramp up the training of moderate Syrian rebels, defense officials said.

The 400 military trainers will be in addition to the 3,100 troops the U.S. has committed for training and advising programs in Iraq.

Maj. James Brindle, a Pentagon spokesman, confirmed the deployment Friday after the news was first reported by Defense One, a military news website, on Thursday.

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US to Keep More Troops in Afghanistan as Violence Spikes

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (L) speaks during a joint news conference with Afghanistan’s president Ashraf Ghani in Kabul on December 6, 2014. (photo: Mark Wilson/Reuters)

Phil Stewart | Reuters | Reader Supported News | December 6, 2014

he United States will keep up to 1,000 more soldiers than previously planned in Afghanistan into next year, outgoing U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Saturday, in a recognition of the still formidable challenge from Taliban insurgents.

Hagel, confirming a change in the U.S. drawdown schedule first reported by Reuters in November, said the additional forces were needed because delays in signing security pacts had impacted plans to raise troops from other countries.

However, he also said that a particularly violent surge of Taliban attacks in Kabul in the last two weeks was a reminder of the continued need for a foreign presence.

“The recent wave of Taliban attacks has made it clear that the international community must not waver in its support for a stable, secure and prosperous Afghanistan,” said Hagel, who arrived in Kabul unannounced on Saturday morning.

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Obama Doubles Number of Troops Authorized for Iraq

Missy Ryan | The Washington Post | Reader Supported News | November 8, 2014

resident Obama authorized Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday to send up to 1,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the force the United States has built up since June to fight the Islamic State militants who control much of Iraq and Syria.

The announcement of a major increase in the force in Iraq deepens U.S. involvement in a messy regional conflict that officials are warning may last for years. The White House said it would request $5.6 billion for the military campaign against the Islamic State, including $1.6 billion to train and equip Iraqi troops.

If funding for the plan is approved, the additional U.S. troops will expand a military advisory mission in Iraq that began in the summer and will establish a new effort to train Iraqi forces, Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, told reporters.

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The Missing Women of Afghanistan

Ann Jones | TomDispatch | Reader Supported News | November 1, 2014

n September 29th, power in Afghanistan changed hands for the first time in 13 years. At the Arg, the presidential palace in Kabul, Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as president, while the outgoing Hamid Karzai watched calmly from a front-row seat.  Washington, congratulating itself on this “peaceful transition,” quickly collected the new president’s autograph on a bilateral security agreement that assures the presence of American forces in Afghanistan for at least another decade. The big news of the day: the U.S. got what it wanted.  (Precisely why Americans should rejoice that our soldiers will stay in Afghanistan for another 10 years is never explained.)

The big news of the day for Afghans was quite different — not the long expected continuation of the American occupation but what the new president had to say in his inaugural speech about his wife, Rula Ghani. Gazing at her as she sat in the audience, he called her by name, praised her work with refugees, and announced that she would continue that work during his presidency.

Those brief comments sent progressive Afghan women over the moon. They had waited 13 years to hear such words — words that might have changed the course of the American occupation and the future of Afghanistan had they been spoken in 2001 by Hamid Karzai.

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Vast majority of US soldiers oppose Iraq deployment