Posted on 08/21/2014 10:01:44 AM PDT by markomalley
The Obama administration should fight the urge to expand its military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) following the execution of American photojournalist James Foley, a senior House member said Thursday.
“We shouldn’t allow this horrible act to provoke us into doing things that are counterproductive,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, on CNN’s "New Day." “There’s nothing ISIS would like more than having us reintroduce ground troops into Iraq, for example.”
He said the U.S. “had to know that when we get involved with airstrikes, that ISIS is going to strike back at us in any way they can.” Schiff admitted that resisting the temptation to ramp up U.S. military objectives in Iraq would be “very difficult, but I think it’s extraordinarily important we keep our focus on what we can achieve.”
He said President Obama should continue authorizing targeted airstrikes against ISIS, providing material and intelligence to Kurdish and Iraqi security forces and working with international partners to “dry up” the group’s funding.
On Tuesday ISIS posted a video online depicting Foley’s execution. The next day, U.S. intelligence officials authenticated the video.
The gruesome execution prompted the president to make a forceful statement from Martha's Vineyard, where he is spending his vacation.
“We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans anywhere, we do what is necessary to make sure justice is done,” he said.
Late Wednesday the White House admitted U.S. special forces had mounted an unsuccessful rescue operation in Syria this summer to get Foley and other Americans being held by ISIS.
Schiff said his panel’s leadership was notified in advance of the failed rescue and that he was “glad” it had been undertaken because “we have to use every means at our disposal to try and rescue Americans who are held hostage.
He also said the State Department’s request for around 300 more U.S. troops to provide additional security in Baghdad is “going to happen and it should happen.”
The decision, still being weighed by military planners, would likely bring the total number of soldiers in Iraq to more than 1,000.
However, Schiff also warned against the risk of “mission creep,” saying lawmakers needed to have a “heart-to-heart” with the administration about seeking congressional approval for America’s latest use of military force in Iraq.
Congress cannot “abdicate our responsibility here,” he said.
Hmmm two thoughts come to mind:
1. Intel Dem is an oxymoron.
2. When dealing with democrats, “top” is still way, way, WAY down there in the pantheon of achievement.
No targeted airstrikes! No boots either! ARCLIGHT!! With napalm, CBUs, daisy cutters, and white phosphorous.
They can try to ignore them and they can try to run them off by throwing dirt clods at them, but eventually, they’re going to have to figure out how to defeat them.
A “heart-to-heart”.
How about “obey the law or we impeach you”.
Just plenty of HE delivered by airmail and support for local governments who would love to see ISIS rotting in hell.
Unless it directly affects them, they don’t care.
Specials Operations, Close Air Support, Cruise Missiles, Push Logistics....they are all just parts of achieving the Grand Strategy. Does Obama have a Grand Strategy? Other than lowering his golf score and getting some big bucks? Killing people with no desired end state is foolish.
“Now, now, be nice, they were just blowing off some steam, don’t be hasty here.”
This was not some college hazing prank, and if it were, it would have gone FAR wrong.
Nations have gone to war for far less provocation.
“Pedricardis alive or Rasuli dead!” - Teddy Roosevelt in 1904.
Just one person. But Pedricardis came back alive.
Classic liberal delusion. “I don’t want to fight, therefore I don’t have to.”
The problem with this is that the enemy gets a vote.
When you are attacked, you can fight back, surrender (if they’re accepting them) or die.
You don’t get a “no fighting” option.
Or, as Eowyn said in Lord of the Rings, “Those who have no swords can still die on them.”
All well and good, until a beheading video is filmed somewhere in Schiff’s California Mohave desert.
“Top Intel Dem says US should not be provoked into extended Pacific campaign by Pearl Harbor attack, adds ‘root causes’ of Japanese fascism need to be addressed.”
Do this & announce to the world that all the aforementioned weapons were impregnated with a certain type of animal fat.
I absolutely agree. Simply find concentrations of ISIS troops and carpet bomb them. Such action would be very productive.
Here's the answer...
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