upside down & backwards

Amos_Umwhat

I'm increasingly confused as life goes on, so many things seem bass-ackwards. Might just be my some-timers kicking in. Soo...

I was listening to Glenn Beck the other day, I like Glenn, don't always agree with him, but I like his style, and he tells that we're sending 300 "Advisors" to Iraq to help deal with Syria / Isis / Isil / Al Quaida in Iraq. We're sending 3000 soldiers to Africa to deal with the Ebola outbreak.

I thought "Surely he must have that backwards"

But, no, this is confirmed.

Next, Congress is planning to spend $500 million to train and arm "Syrian Rebels". ISIS is the Syrian rebels, aren't they? I guess we're finding "good-guy" Syrian Rebels?

But,

the fact is

There are no good guys there!!!

The only good guys in that part of the world that I'm aware of are Israel, and......

hmmm...

maybe a few scattered tribes and individuals, and these still have conflicting loyalties, and little or no power.

Surely I'm about to wake up, right? This is all just a bad dream....no?

Rain

I'd like to meet a soldier who knows how to fight Ebola.Minus a bullet to the head, of course.

The3Stogies

Yup you're right, kinda got our priorities mixed up don't we? I didn't exactly get what these soldiers' mission would be fighting ebola. Maybe they will introduce Obamacare.

Arming Syrians, for what? Can they be trained, will they fight for us or themselves or will they drop and run like The Iraq army we trained for 2 years? We have the best army in the world and we want to sub-contract to lesser terrorists that may be on our side, right now. Maybe we should hire the Mexican army to secure the southern border too.

Obama, or any politician, should leave the wars to the generals, support them unflinchingly, and in the words of Maggie Thatcher "Don't get wobbly". Finish the job fast and sustain your gains.

raisindot

Amos Umwhat:

I'm increasingly confused as life goes on, so many things seem bass-ackwards. Might just be my some-timers kicking in. Soo...

I was listening to Glenn Beck the other day, I like Glenn, don't always agree with him, but I like his style, and he tells that we're sending 300 "Advisors" to Iraq to help deal with Syria / Isis / Isil / Al Quaida in Iraq. We're sending 3000 soldiers to Africa to deal with the Ebola outbreak.

I thought "Surely he must have that backwards"

But, no, this is confirmed.

Next, Congress is planning to spend $500 million to train and arm "Syrian Rebels". ISIS is the Syrian rebels, aren't they? I guess we're finding "good-guy" Syrian Rebels?

But,

the fact is

There are no good guys there!!!

The only good guys in that part of the world that I'm aware of are Israel, and......

hmmm...

maybe a few scattered tribes and individuals, and these still have conflicting loyalties, and little or no power.

Surely I'm about to wake up, right? This is all just a bad dream....no?

The Syrian rebels are not one huge gigantic ISIS club. There are many different militia. Many are Al-Queda and ISIL types. Some are Christian groups. Some are secular groups. Some are non-radical Sunni groups. Some are Hezbollah groups. Consider them kind of like a heavily armed parliament, only that political change comes through war and whoever gets the Syrian mainstream military on their side. (Of course, all of these groups are anti-Israel.

Before initially the Al-Queda and then ISIL rebels started winning the day, the U.S. did hope that some of these non-radicai groups would overthrow Assad. They didn't, and Assad ended taking back most of the areas won by the so-called "good" rebels. I think by now it's generally accepted that it's better to have Assad remain in power than to have him ousted and have ISIL take over. So, the "advisors" are really being sent to arm and train the "good" rebels to fight ISIL. "Good" being defined as the old "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" strategy, which is as old as time itself. Chances are, however, that this won't work out, since many of the "good" rebels actually have a problem with beheading innocent people and imposing Sharia on everyone. Things like rights and freedom don't make very compelling motivations in the middle East, at least not compared to getting your head chopped off if you don't follow a particular version of Islamic fundamenatlism. That's why it's far more likely that all this training of good rebels will lead to naught; they'll get slaughtered and their weapons will end up in ISIL's hands (Wouldn't it be nice if all our miliary weapons had a self-destruct mechanism we could trigger if they fell into the wrong hands?).

The military personnel being sent to Africa are being used for "nation building" purposes. The assumption is that they're not going to go into battle but will instead be kind of a like a heavily armed Peace Corps. But if these guys get anywhere close to where the Ebola outbreaks are they'll be in much greater danger of being killed than the advisors in Syria, who won't be positioned anywhere near the "action."

jd50ae

I am amazed at how little real, and even recent history that goes right over some peoples heads. Every country that has gone over there, for what ever reason, has had the people they tried to help take the arms given them, and turn them those same arms against their own population and the country that tried to help them. It is a fact that even obozo and his minions can't deny. So they don't deny it, they ignore it. When politicians get out of the way, and the newly appointed PC generals are removed, turn it over to the military and get it over with. And every single person I have talked to that is in, or was in the military will tell you the same thing, I am sure there are some who don't agree, but I don't know any.

jd50ae

Amos Umwhat:

I'm increasingly confused as life goes on, so many things seem bass-ackwards. Might just be my some-timers kicking in. Soo...

I was listening to Glenn Beck the other day, I like Glenn, don't always agree with him, but I like his style, and he tells that we're sending 300 "Advisors" to Iraq to help deal with Syria / Isis / Isil / Al Quaida in Iraq. We're sending 3000 soldiers to Africa to deal with the Ebola outbreak.

I thought "Surely he must have that backwards"

But, no, this is confirmed.

Next, Congress is planning to spend $500 million to train and arm "Syrian Rebels". ISIS is the Syrian rebels, aren't they? I guess we're finding "good-guy" Syrian Rebels?

But,

the fact is

There are no good guys there!!!

The only good guys in that part of the world that I'm aware of are Israel, and......

hmmm...

maybe a few scattered tribes and individuals, and these still have conflicting loyalties, and little or no power.

Surely I'm about to wake up, right? This is all just a bad dream....no?

I just e-mailed the very same thoughts to some folks on active duty.

pelirrojo

I'm not sure about the ebola/soldier deal myself. As for the 300 to the middle east, I was under the impression that we weren't going to commit very many boots on the ground to this situation and predominantly back up our allies with air support/drones. So... sounds like the President is doing what he said he would, for now anyways.

variant2

Amos Umwhat:

SNIP: Surely I'm about to wake up, right? This is all just a bad dream....no?

It's all about the votes. Wait till your bad dream turns into a living nightmare.

raisindot

jd50ae:

I am amazed at how little real, and even recent history that goes right over some peoples heads. Every country that has gone over there, for what ever reason, has had the people they tried to help take the arms given them, and turn them those same arms against their own population and the country that tried to help them.

On this assertion, you're absolutely right During the Vietnam War Kennedy, LBJ and Nixon funneled tons of arms to the corrupt South Vietnamese government that ended up in the hands of the Vietcong and used to fight American troops. Ronald Reagan and Bush I armed Osama Bin Ladn and his minions to the teeth to fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan, and look what happened. Ronald Reagan illegally and secretly sold arms to Iran, some of which ended up being used by the Iranian militias that fought against U.S. troops in the Iraqi War. Dubya Bush gave billions of dollars in arms to the Iraqi military during the Iraq War, and many of them ended up in the hands of terrorists and renegade Iraqi soldiers who used them to attack and kill our brave American soldiers. Dubya also gave plenty of arms to Afghan soldiers, many of whom taking them with them to the Taliban. Obama is simply repeating the same mistakes of his predecessors.

kuzi16

Rain:

I'd like to meet a soldier who knows how to fight Ebola.Minus a bullet to the head, of course.

fighting the infection... one bullet at a time.

webmost

raisindot:

Obama is simply repeating the same mistakes of his predecessors.

So, which is that, Hope or Change? Help me out here.

Amos_Umwhat

webmost:

raisindot:

Obama is simply repeating the same mistakes of his predecessors.

So, which is that, Hope or Change? Help me out here.

I like it, reflects the truth that Prez after Prez they all end up the same, lackeys of the military / industrial complex.

raisindot

Amos Umwhat:

webmost:

raisindot:

Obama is simply repeating the same mistakes of his predecessors.

So, which is that, Hope or Change? Help me out here.

I like it, reflects the truth that Prez after Prez they all end up the same, lackeys of the military / industrial complex.

Add banking, oil, coal and Wall Street to that and I agree 100%.

The3Stogies

Have to give Bush credit going forward with the "surge", even against public opinion. That's what his commanders wanted, that's what he authorized. Think Obama would do that?