Originally Posted by tetvet

The Problem IS we've been here done this before , the American people will not support another ,'nother mid east war , the U.S. is in darkness with no sign of light and not much sign of life , the battle for the middle east must be won in the U.S. .

I have read a report that 70% of Americans want to do something about this.

These "individuals" are oprerating beyond the pale of human conduct. Everybody wants them dead....Sunnis, Shia, Chritians, they all hate this group.

To do something is very vague , I think everyone is aware that Air Strikes alone won't do it , your President is shucking an jiving as fast as he can , Ferguson here gay football player there , he can barely find time for golf , when he saw the oval office the other day he asked whose office this was .

To make these people dead you have to kill them and there will be a lot of collateral killing , ISIS will make sure plenty of so called innocent civilians dead and blame the collation on it

Thank god we have a joint chiefs of staff.

Dempsey has aready recommended boots on the ground....

Originally Posted by RSTA

Thank god we have a joint chiefs of staff.

Dempsey has aready recommended boots on the ground....

I don't think anything of the sort is going to happen until the results of the november elections.

Dempsey is a political animal who is in lock step with his CinC he looks good he looks like a take charge General , the one good General Obama had in his arsenal was McCrystal ( mis-spelled ) who knew what it would take to control the situation not to win the war which would be impossible but to have control over the out come .

Originally Posted by tetvet

Dempsey is a political animal who is in lock step with his CinC he looks good he looks like a take charge General , the one good General Obama had in his arsenal was McCrystal ( mis-spelled ) who knew what it would take to control the situation not to win the war which would be impossible but to have control over the out come .

I disagree

A day or two after Obama gave his nation speach Dempsey sat in front of congress saying we were going to need boots on the ground.

I'd call that a slap in the face.

So did most the generals that told Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld that we needed at least half a million for OIF....they were sent to pasture or retired shortly after. It doesn't matter what the JCS says, they still must work within the restrictions of the chain of command. If he was really convicted about poor leadership, he would resign in protest....at the same time he is a leader who is trying to do what he can with what he has....in good times and bad. Got no use for fair weather soldiers which is likely how he would view himself if he did resign...it is a vicious circle.

Originally Posted by brinktk

So did most the generals that told Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld that we needed at least half a million for OIF....they were sent to pasture or retired shortly after. It doesn't matter what the JCS says, they still must work within the restrictions of the chain of command. If he was really convicted about poor leadership, he would resign in protest....at the same time he is a leader who is trying to do what he can with what he has....in good times and bad. Got no use for fair weather soldiers which is likely how he would view himself if he did resign...it is a vicious circle.

I agree, he gave a no BS assesment to congress going against the president. He took it as far as he could without getting sacked.

Those were the soldiers I respected.

I believe he took it as far as he was TOLD too .

Originally Posted by brinktk

So did most the generals that told Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld that we needed at least half a million for OIF....they were sent to pasture or retired shortly after. It doesn't matter what the JCS says, they still must work within the restrictions of the chain of command. If he was really convicted about poor leadership, he would resign in protest....at the same time he is a leader who is trying to do what he can with what he has....in good times and bad. Got no use for fair weather soldiers which is likely how he would view himself if he did resign...it is a vicious circle.

brinkth didn't you indicate the US - Coalition had Iraq ~ stabilized with the coalition troop strength troop strength that was available? "After desert storm", this stayed at ~ 150,000 troops from (2004 to 2011)? Not including Kurds and US trained Iraq's.
The reason I mention this is would 1/2 million troops be overkill or would it have made much difference?
One thing that likely would have helped greatly would have been positive media coverage for our troops, I'm sure you know what I mean here.
Note: with the present policies in Washington I don't think we could send 1/2 million troops even if we wanted to.