Posted on 09/04/2013 10:37:19 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Kerry opens door to 'boots on ground' in Syria, then slams it shut
By Patricia Zengerle and Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry briefly opened the door on Tuesday to authorizing U.S. ground troops in Syria, but quickly slammed it shut and told Congress that any resolution approving military force would prohibit "boots on the ground."
The exchange during the first public hearing in Congress on possible military action in Syria highlighted the worries of many lawmakers about authorizing U.S. military strikes to punish the Syrian government for using chemical weapons on civilians.
Kerry initially told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he would prefer not to bar the use of ground troops in Syria to preserve President Barack Obama's options if Syria "imploded" or there was a threat of chemical weapons being obtained by extremists.
"I don't want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to a president of the United States to secure our country," Kerry told the committee.
But when Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the top Republican on the committee, told Kerry he "didn't find that a very appropriate response regarding boots on the ground," Kerry quickly, and repeatedly, backtracked.
Kerry said he was simply "thinking out loud" and raising a hypothetical situation, but he did not want to leave the door open to sending ground troops to Syria.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Translation: Hanoi John lets slip his true intentions, and then tries to shove the cat back into the bag.
Just as has been done in Iraq and Afghanistan the military puts Special Operators on the ground to coordinate air attacks to ensure targets are hit without much collateral damage, many military experts are saying that there will have to be special operators on the ground in Syria prior to the bombings.
Good article here about JTACs:
U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet
6TH COMBAT TRAINING SQUADRON
Mission
The mission of the 6th Combat Training Squadron (6 CTS) is to train and educate joint fires integrators for today’s and tomorrow’s battlefield. The 6 CTS trains Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC), Air Liaison Officers (ALO), Ground Liaison Officers (GLO), and Air Support Operations Center (ASOC)-bound students. It also conducts the Joint Firepower Course (JFC) and Joint Forward Air Controller Airborne (JFAC(A)) kinetic and non-kinetic joint fires integration training.
Joint fires integration involves the coordination and deconfliction of all surface fires - weapons used against ground targets - including those expended from the air and those expended from the ground.
Without this coordination, indirect fires such as artillery shells arcing high in the air, or direct fires such as machine gun bullets travelling between a mountain and a valley, could be a threat to low-flying aircraft. Conversely, a pilot or weapons officer in a plane trying to distinguish between enemy and friendly ground forces while flying at hundreds of miles an hour is far more effective with an advisor on the ground to help determine the best tactic to approach a target or the right place to drop a bomb.
Having these specialist liaisons also speeds up communication, increases the force commander’s control of the battle, and improves tactical decision-making and cooperative use of friendly assets across the board.
JTACs provide terminal control of both air and surfaced based fires at the tactical level - they are the ones on the ground “calling in strikes” on targets. ALOs are Air Force members attached to Army units that provide advice and expertise regarding the use of Air Force assets to the ground commander. Likewise, GLOs are Army members who provide advice and assistance to Air Force units. Air Force members working in the Air Support Operations Center are responsible for matching Air Force assets with requests for close air support (CAS) and getting those assets to and from the target areas. Finally, JFAC(A)s are capable of providing the same terminal control for surface and air fires as a JTAC, but add the capability of doing it from an aircraft. All of these duties play key roles in CAS operations....
Read at:
http://www.nellis.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=19690
Kerry: “I was for boots on the ground, before I was against it.”
There is no such thing as a “limited strike”. A Congressional authorization is the equivalent of a declaration of war. The US will be involved in a prolonged, bloody, Mideast quagmire. There not only be boots on the ground but a lot of American blood as well. Kerry and Obama are both narcissists and won’t care. Perhaps Boehner will weep some real tears for the carnage he could have prevented. If this “limited strike” occurs, Boehner will resign within six months.
He can always open the door again if it is advantageous to the administration.
I was just horsin' around.
I can’t look at that puff faced freak without gagging. The egos those people have is sickening. Plugs in Biden’s head and air pockets in Kerry’s face. This alone is reason enough not to trust them. I always ask “How can any voter defend this crap?”
With the JTACs
By James Kitfield
USAF’s joint terminal attack controllers have helped transform counterinsurgency operations.
“The US must limit collateral damage and civilian casualties to deny insurgents the support of the public. JTACs help here, too, by calling in precision strikes and tailoring munitions to the situation.”
http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2012/April%202012/0412jtacs.aspx
This may be the destruction of our country. It’s going to be us against the world. And the world just may win. Not militarily. But economically. We can’t survive $5 a gallon gasoline.
These DC hacks are insane!
He was engaged in verbal twerking.
They are rejecting a resolution that limits operations to 90 days with NO boots on the ground.
McCain rejected it.
Why?
Because they want those things
Secretary Kerry told the Senate committee that U.S. servicemen are perfect to deliver the kind of message the Syrians need to get because our guys have all, including all the way up the chain of command, personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and [tied] dogs [to the tops of vehicles] for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side [in] addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."
Holy hogwash Batman, Obama is a lefty!
Metals, ribbons, symbols, boots... Can we trust anything he says?
The Saudis will pay big bucks for the blood of America’s sons and daughters. Of course with them it’s chump change but McCain and his effing blowhards have bankrupted the country to the point that we’re actually considering selling out.
McCain and Obama are evil men.
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