The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, like most people at a senior level under virtually ANY sitting U.S. president, rarely makes carefully crafted public statements (especially in situations such as high-profile testimony on Capitol Hill) without first vetting those statements higher-up the political food chain. It's a basic, Poli-Sci 101 rule amongst the universe of all of those very serious people in Washington D.C. And, in the unusual situations where that type of misstep does occur, the first thing that happens is a public statement--more often than not, issued directly from the White House--walking it back.
To the best of my knowledge, the White House never "corrected" General Dempsey's statement, when--as I reported The Guardian's version of that story here: "Dempsey: Gov't Actively Considering Direct Use of U.S. Combat Troops to Fight ISIS In Iraq"--the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before the House Armed Services Committee "...that he would consider abandoning Obama’s pledge and send troops to fight Isis in Iraq."
US military considers sending combat troops to battle Isis forces in Iraq
General Martin Dempsey tells House committee that he would consider abandoning Obama’s pledge and send troops to fight Isis in Iraq
Spencer Ackerman and Raya Jalabi in New York
The Guardian
Thursday 13 November 2014 14.22 EST
The top-ranking officer in the American military said on Thursday that the US is actively considering the direct use of troops in the toughest upcoming fights against the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq, less than a week after Barack Obama doubled troop levels there.
General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, indicated to the House of Representatives armed services committee that the strength of Isis relative to the Iraqi army may be such that he would recommend abandoning Obama’s oft-repeated pledge against returning US ground troops to combat in Iraq...
But, if you read some of the comments in my diary here about all of this, late Thursday afternoon (without reading the contents of the diary, itself), you'd swear I was being admonished by a handful of fellow Kossacks for taking a piss on the northern portico of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Or, worse.
So, here we are less than 72 hours later, and lo and behold, as Reuters is now informing us, it turns out there were damn good reasons--of course--why General Dempsey made those obviously-scripted statements on Thursday...
U.S. forces already advising Iraqi forces in Anbar province
By Phil Stewart
INCIRLIK AIR BASE Turkey
Sun Nov 16, 2014 8:38am EST
(Reuters) - American forces have begun advising Iraqi troops in the western Anbar province, the top U.S. general told Reuters, in a faster-than-expected expansion of an operation that is central to its campaign against Islamic State.
General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a small group of advisers had already established themselves in a preliminary fashion at Ain al-Asad air base in the province, much of which is controlled by the militant Islamist group.
They would also eventually start training the Iraqi army's seventh division, which suffered major setbacks during the Islamic State's advances across the country this summer.
"We have a train, advise and assist team in al-Asad air base," Dempsey said in an interview conducted on Saturday. "There's enough there that are already working with the seventh division to help them plan and help them understand the threat, to advise them on how to consolidate their forces."
President Barack Obama's administration announced on Nov. 7 it would send up to 1,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq, widening its advising mission and initiating training of Baghdad's forces. At the time, officials suggested the expansion would take weeks to get underway…
(Bold type and underscoring is diarist's emphasis.)
A couple of questions for those in the comments:
Do people in this, supposedly, high-info community really believe that the U.S. military wasn’t actively planning this all out, and then implementing it, many weeks—if not months--ago?
Does anyone reading this really think that we do not have special ops units already in-country (more than likely, throughout Iraq and Syria) as you read this?
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From Meteor Blades, in the comments…
No surprise at all. Back in mid-September...
...in this diary of mine was this excerpt from the NYT. Emphasis added in third paragraph:
The challenge will come, General Dempsey said, when Iraqi and Kurdish forces try to drive the militants out of densely populated urban areas like Mosul. In those cases, General Dempsey said, he might recommend deploying Special Operations troops to provide what he called “close combat advising,” essentially working alongside Iraqi commanders in the field and helping them direct their troops to targets.
While the Americans would not fire weapons themselves, military experts said there was little practical distinction between the role General Dempsey described at the hearing and actual combat.
“We’ve already got ground forces introduced, and they are performing combat missions,” Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army general who helped train the Iraqi security forces and is now a senior adviser to the National Security Network, said on Tuesday. “I applaud the general for his candor. That will help the president and the debate greatly.”
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