Posted on 04/13/2017 3:41:05 PM PDT by blam
It appears that Mike Cernovich, who earlier this week wrote that Trump's national security advisor, Gen. H.R.McMaster, was planning on sending as many as 150,000 troops to Syria, may have been right again. According to Bloomberg commentator Eli Lake, who has now made a habit of confirming Cernovich "conspiracy theories" (he did so previously with the Susan Rice scoop), Trump may be on the verge of escalating the proxy war in Syria by sending anywhere between 10,000 and 50,000 troops on the ground, and - if Cernovich is indeed correct - as much as three times more.
Per Lake, after U-turning on attacking Syria last week and on a variety of economic policies yesterday, the Donald Trump's "biggest foreign policy surprise may be yet to come." Specifically, he says that McMaster, has been quietly pressing his colleagues to question the underlying assumptions of a draft war plan against the Islamic State that would maintain only a light U.S. ground troop presence in Syria." McMaster's critics inside the administration say he wants to send tens of thousands of ground troops to the Euphrates River Valley. His supporters insist he is only trying to facilitate a better interagency process to develop Trump's new strategy to defeat the self-described caliphate that controls territory in Iraq and Syria."
To be sure, there have been ground troops, typically special forces, in Syria since 2014, when Barack Obama famously flipflopped on his own promise of "no more boots on the ground", first in Iraq and then the broader region.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
The President campaigned on destroying ISIS.
This should not be about toppling al-Assad. I personally suspect it’s possible Assad has received a bum rap.
As long as the President has an agreement with Putin to put ISIS in a ‘pincer’ attack, everything should be fine, no WWIII.
Backtracking, what is concerning is the Tillerson-McMaster intel product that accused al-Assad of the Sarin gas attack. Coulter makes a penetrating case for faulty intel. We will never know but goddam it I want Tillerson and McMaster to scrub that Intel chain of custody clean and that means draining the Swamp dry. Because all those intel agencies have Obama embeds in control of a lot of intel flow.
As some so-called ‘conspiracy’ rebels such as Cernovich have called out, the heartbreaking photos of suffering and dead babies in the alleged Assad Sarin attack were blasted by propaganda media outlets (= democrat progressive) whereas not a frickin peep of all the dead Christian babies and children decapitated by ISIS when such photos in fact exist.
Taking into account all the other circumstances on the ground that don’t add up as well as the blatant chimp whooping and swinging from Beltway Banyon vines by the likes of Lindsey Graham and William Kristol over the Tomahawk display, it is highly likely that Tillerson and McMaster were rolled and fooled.
Like I posted earlier, it doesn’t matter that a bunch of Syrian jets now exist as burned, busted up, twisted scrap metal. Mistakes happen in war acts and one benefit here for the US is that Assad, if innocent of the Sarin gas charge, better be smarter the next time and not get sucked into a propaganda trap.
Bombing a bunch of jets by mistake is not a big frickin deal.
What is a big frickin deal is Tillerson and McMaster possibly not getting solid intel product because of deception by a-holes leftover from the Obama Admin. And McCabe is a prime example on the FBI side!
If the Tomahawk strike had not occurred, and the meeting proceeded between Tillerson and Putin to huddle up about how to destroy ISIS, the massing US troops in the desert to take out ISIS would be completely in keeping with a campaign pledge.
On the other hand, these democrat scum and their news media surrogates have been erecting a BIG LIE from day one about Trump and Russians, and now the Tomahawk strike has destroyed that deception. The collateral damage is a bunch of wrecked jets and some soiled panties.
Again the only thing to be concerned with is draining the Swamp to reveal especially the Obamaphile creatures to ensure the intel flow is solid and uncompromised.
The only other ancillary concern is getting Kushner and the globalist ticks he brought into the West Wing under a conservative quarantine. That could be a tougher task than defeating ISIS.
President Trump has said many times that he will not announce what he plans to do. I wonder if there is any congressional authorization still in force to commit troops to Iraq?
This could be something that some in the WH or State or the Petagon are proposing, but who knows if Trump would support it.
This better not happen.
I hope Zero Hedge is zero right on this. The only thing it will prove is how to get soldiers killed. Anyone remember Reagan and Beirut?
Predicting that Susan Ric will tell a lie is not quite the same as predicting Trump’s military plans.
Every one who has predicted his actions has been shown to be incapable of predicting his actions.
The story is BS.
BS
“He also turned over his war fighting strategy to the generals and this is exactly what they would tell Trump they need to do the job”
Bingo.
Also note: People and equipment are already flowing into theater, and have been for some time now.
Marines are on the ground near Raqqa, popping an average of 40 fire missions per day, and more arrived with the fresh Carrier Strike Group which has taken up station.
2nd Brigade of the 82d Airborne Division has been flowing in through Kuwait. Units on other US bases have been alerted. A big RORO ship recently docked in the Jordanian port of Aqaba. The Runway in Kobane has been extended to handle our largest cargo aircraft, and the recently captured Tabqa Airbase near Raqqa will be able to as well (we are working 24/7 to get that one operational).
I’d guess that 10,000 would be a pretty safe guess - maybe 50,000. Naturally, they also have plans for further reinforcements, should potential contingencies develop.
There is a three star General (LTG Townsend) commanding an operational CJTF Headquarters in theater managing the Raqqa Operation now, which indicates we are ready to command and control the full range of troop levels being discussed.
Let’s not forget that we could also likely muster many units from allies in theater, if we planned to host a really big operation - Jordan, Israel, maybe Egypt - Turkey has been chomping at the bit to jump in, and Saudi Arabia has repeatedly offered in public - half of Sunni Islam. Those numbers could become confused into US totals, during the re-telling.
Someone is always posting some nonsense. Some may revel in it.
However, Trump may send more troops to Syria, but those are to fight ISIS.
We’re not making the distinction between fighting ISIS versus taking the capital Damascus.
All this in a country where we have no status of forces agreement, no congressional authorization , no UN resolution authorizing forceful removal of the head of state, in which the existing government is legitimate , elected 3 times, and recognized by many of the population ( as much as we deny that) and which has invited Russia and Iran to assist in military operations with its own military
This is not even Bush 3.0 since both the Bushes laid down meticulous efforts of proof to the UN which had already standing authorizations for force in case of UNSC violations
This is Trump 1.0
If we truly wanted to effectively fight ISIS we’d be using every available resource to do so
Including the Syrian and Russian militaries
The fact that we are not doing that betrays our statements of why we are there and what we are doing
Our underlying mission remains regime change
I don’t expect a military march on Assad with an invasion. Send a cruise missile though his window be would the most cost effective although Assad may be sleeping underground these days.
I would not get too upset just yet. These may be options being presented to Trump ... or fake news ... or Trump may flip-flop before being implemented. Hopefully Trump will realize he has his hands full with NK and get his mind right on Syria. We will see.
“Didn’t Trump already refute this in a tweet? I seem to recall.”
yes.
Noticed that Drudge added Cernovich to the Drudge Report.
I hope not. As long as they are not a direct threat to us, lets focus on fixing and building up this country.
Describe to us what Syrian cities look like the day, week, month and 6 months after Syria’s president is assassinated by the West
And what happens to,all those people and all his loyal military and their families and relatives
You think ISIS and Al Qaeda will form a peaceful political solution with the CIA the Kurds the Turks the shia and the Russians?
Predicting Rice being a liar is hardly psychic. Don’t believe any of it.
Interesting... Cernovich’s 2nd wife is Iranian or Iranian American and he is a socialist:
From wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Cernovich]:
Although describing himself as on the political right, he supports single-payer healthcare and “some form of universal basic income.”[32]Jump up
^ Cernovich, Mike (April 1, 2017). “Here is the full 60 Minutes Interview Transcript [https://medium.com/@Cernovich/here-is-the-full-60-minutes-interview-transcript-with-mike-cernovich-a0cb58a80ba0] with Mike Cernovich”. Medium.com.
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