"America’s New Way of War Is an Old Way of War" Topic

"On Sept. 10, U.S. president Barack Obama announced his plan for a broader and more intensive military campaign targeting Islamic State extremists in Iraq.

But for all its rapid expansion in recent weeks, the American operation against Islamic State is still modest in scale. There are just a thousand U.S. advisers and trainers in Iraq—and Obama has promised to send another 500, potentially including Special Operations Forces.

Drones and warplanes are doing much of the dirty work, flying over militant forces, gathering intel, dropping bombs…"
Full article here
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Amicalement
Armand

Being a history major, and well…thinking of an earlier time when a Democrat president sent "Advisors", and the "SF" personnel, and then committed aerial support to another country….

hmmmm….

Does sound familiar … hopefully we will learn from past errors … But at this time, SF/Spec Ops/CIA types training, arming local forces in the region [some of which we are re-training … again] providing Log, Intel, Meds, etc. and most importantly accurate CAS. Seems to be the only short term "fix" … The US does not have a will, wear with all, funds, etc. to invade an another moslem country. And it would only play into the jihadists' needs and methods. Claiming the infidels are on a crusade again. Invading islamic territories, etc., etc. ad nauseam
… I did hear on CNN today, Germany is sending 40 Paratroops, arms, supplies, etc., to train the Peshmerga. Who seem the only Arab force willing to take the fight to ISIS, etc. … Many other Arabs countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey have sent nothing but rethoric ad nauseam ,
as of yet … They may hope the US/NATO will step in again. But yet the immediate is both nations and others back yards … Does sound a little like South Vietnam … again …

Legion 4 … ellipses … short, choppy phrases … hard to read and parse … Just a thought.

Not to nick pick, but Turks are not Arabs.

Sorry jp … I type the way I think … I'll work on that …

Not to nick pick, but Turks are not Arabs.

Yes I know, nor are Iranians, they are Persians … However, if I listed all the different ethnicities, tribes, religions, affilations, etc., etc., of the regions mentioned I be here all day … I believe most understood my intentions with my comments, about Arabs, Bedouins, Hazzara, Assyrians, Yazidis, Chaldeans, Iraqis, Syrians, Jordanians, Kuwaitis, Turkmen, Pastun, Tajiks, Druze, Saudis, Christians, Jew, Orthodox, Shia, Sunni, Zoroastrianism, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc. …

Sorry, I was nick-picking. I would suggest "Middle Eastern" countries.

Fair enough …

Being a history major, and well…thinking of an earlier time when a Democrat president sent "Advisors", and the "SF" personnel, and then committed aerial support to another country….

True, but these guys hardly sound like VC..

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Wars are similar in mant ways, but all are different. And these guys aren't just brutal nationalists/communists. They're something darkly different, like Cambodia with religion.

I personally think it's more like Afganistan in its opening stages. The only real question is whether or not the US and her allies will let them have a hands-off sanctuary like the Taliban had/have in Pakistan.

Spec Ops, log, intel, training, etc. & CAS, supporting the few locals willing to fight seems to me to be the best option of many bad(der) options … That is generally similar to SF in Indo-China …