Posted on Dec 1, 2015
SGT Infantryman (Airborne)
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Well, I'm sad more Special Ops are heading to Iraq to engage Islamic State Militants with the Iraqs and Kurds. IMO, we're going to be there forever. Carter also said more troops may be sent later. So, here it is folks. The warmongers get what they want and those against sending more Americans into combat, like me, have to suck it up and pray we don't lose too many of our own.
And now to the rest of the sad news:
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WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Tuesday that the United States will send expeditionary military personnel into battle with Iraqi and Kurdish forces against Islamic State militants as part of a stepped-up war effort ordered by the White House.

The special operators will assist the Iraqis and peshmerga forces as well as conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture Islamic State leaders, according to Carter’s testimony to the House Armed Services Committee. The secretary also said the United States could increase the number of military trainers in Iraq and special operators deployed to Syria. He did not say how many special operators would be deployed.

http://www.stripes.com/news/middle-east/carter-more-us-special-ops-headed-to-iraq-1.381327
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Responses: 8
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
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Works for me! I commend the President for his use of the Military Intelligence and Special Forces Community. Restored our Honor, Unlike what his Predecessor did!
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
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SGT (Join to see) - Yep, Some have Scars on the Outside, Some on the Inside. Some Both.
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MCPO Katrina Hutcherson
MCPO Katrina Hutcherson
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I'm conflicted about this. The administration ties the hands of the military. The bombing campaign wasn't/isn't working because they want zero collateral damage. So, we can't harm their civilian population but we can risk our sons and daughters... Still, maybe our civilian population will be safer if we take the fight to them and annihilate them in their nest so to speak.
It would be nice if we could take all the military age men fleeing Syria and train them in Jordan to be the ground forces necessary to take back their country.
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
9 y
MCPO Katrina Hutcherson - It would be nice way of doing it if we could Master Chief.
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MAJ David Wallace
MAJ David Wallace
9 y
MCPO Katrina Hutcherson - I tend to agree with you; we should be wiping the threat out where it is strongest and send a clear and decisive message to anyone else who would threaten our nation's safety. Unfortunately, I don't think any of those fighting aged males have the intestinal fortitude to take back their country. They left without their families and ran like cowards, leaving the women, children, and elderly to fend for themselves....shameful.
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MAJ Special Forces Officer
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didn't cos GEN Miley say in one of his statements on the Army that SF cannot do it all?
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SGT Infantryman (Airborne)
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LCDR Sales & Proposals Manager Gas Turbine Products
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I heard this last night and here are my thoughts, purely from a strategic perspective. If a former or current Operator can correct me...I'm very willing (and would be relieved) to be corrected.

Isn't the entire profile of SPECOPS small unit operations? I always understood that the Army's Special Forces are designed to infiltrate, create and advise counter-insurgencies, perform high level intelligence gathering, and conduct direct action raids and asset capture/neutralization. SEALs, as it was always explained to me, conduct similar missions, but are tailored more towards rapid insertion/extraction. Who knows what the true capabilities of Delta Force and DEVGRU are, but I'd assume very much the same...just on a much higher level.

What I've never heard of, is Special Operations Command fighting an entire war on the ground, without significant support in the background. I don't want to play "armchair admiral", but it seems to me ISIS is a far cry from Al Queda...with at least a 30,000 man strong army in the field, and what "seems" to be less an "insurgency", and more an emerging state infrastructure. If conservative estimates of total SPECOPS strength are accurate, including Air Force assets and MARSOC, are we looking at these forces acting more as a high-level BCT, with some yet to be spoken of support elements (that sounds unlikely)...or is this essentially a re-play of how the last one got set up?

The article seems to assume Iraqi and Kurdish forces will be the "main body"...Is anyone else as skeptical of that as I am?
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SGT Infantryman (Airborne)
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LCDR (Join to see), Sir, and I don't know. That's all the article wrote about. Maybe there's more to it than was written about.
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