EXCLUSIVE-U.S. may significantly hike number of troops in Iraq - sources

Breaking 5 minutes ago:

WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has drawn up plans to significantly increase the number of American forces in Iraq, which now total around 1,400, as Washington seeks to bolster Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to offer details. The United States aims to help advise and train Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling Islamic State fighters who swept into much of northern Iraq. (Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Bill Trott)

www.reuters.com...

It looks like with the election over...the military is really going to start pressuring Obama to step up his game against ISIS!
More here as the story develops.

a reply to: IAMTAT

For the first time in the last decade, I want these mother f*^/$ers steamrolled already.

Eta: I will feel no shame about my country if they choose to put the lot of these bigots to sleep.

Word is the US will be sending 1500 troops to train the Iraqi's.

Because training them in the past has worked so well. Iraq is a failed concept, let it be split up between the Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites.

*Sigh* so much for them being advisors... Did anyone believe that line for a second?

In Vietnam, they were called "advisors".

But don't worry, there won't be any boots on the ground.

a reply to: Swills
It isn't as simple as that. Islamic State poses a greater threat. Wait until they start on Iran...

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

It could be as simple as that but the west enjoys adding the to cluster F that is the Middle East. The Iraqi army is a joke and further training isn't going to make them any better. IS now has loads of US arms because of the failed Iraqi army. They also have 88 pounds of Uranium stolen from an Iraqi University. The current state of Iraq has been a joke since Saddam's fall and sending 1500 more "advisers" isn't gonna change that.

Get started on Iran? Iran has been in the fight against IS by helping the Iraqi Shiites combat them.

Borders Crumble, Army Gone - Iraq Spirals Out Of Control

Hell Yeah!! My SO was due back in US in August! He has been fighting ISIS (SF) and has been delayed indefinitely!!!

Now, perhaps our guys will get the support they have needed for months!! And yes there have been boots on the ground!
But with Obama they have had their hands tied and been pussyfooting around with these damn bombings.. These guys know how to stop ISIS but need the back up support!! They are exhausted!!

pax

a reply to: Swills

Well you are entitled to your own opinion ......but you are wrong!! Don't try and second guess the military....It is the ASS HAT, Obama's fault that ISIS gained this much power!! And our great leader has undermined the military every damn chance he gets!

Pax

Sounds about right. Problem, Reaction, Solution. In this case, a three state Iraq.

Galbraith says that the Sunni Awakening still remains very hostile to the Iraqi government, and the government sees the Awakening as a bigger threat than al-Qaida. The incoming Obama administration will bring Vice President-elect Joe Biden into the fray, which Galbraith calls "very encouraging." Biden "has been the prime proponent of a decentralized Iraq, and although in the campaign Sen. McCain described [Biden's] plan as a 'cockamamie' idea," Galbraith says, "it is in fact what the Bush administration has done." In 2007, the Bush administration financed a Sunni army — the Awakening — and Galbraith says this is responsible for the success so far in Iraq. Biden would take this to the next step and encourage the Sunnis to form their own region, which would control that army, just as the Kurdistan region controls the Peshmerga, or the Kurdistan army, Galbraith says.

NPR

As for those who refuse to "think the unthinkable," declaring that boundaries must not change and that's that, it pays to remember that boundaries have never stopped changing through the centuries. Borders have never been static, and many frontiers, from Congo through Kosovo to the Caucasus, are changing even now (as ambassadors and special representatives avert their eyes to study the shine on their wingtips). Oh, and one other dirty little secret from 5,000 years of history: Ethnic cleansing works.

Blood Borders

YES, war once again... money to be made...

a reply to: paxnatus

Second guess which military? Iraq's? If so are you not aware of how much of a failure they are? If you mean the US military, well they were there in full force spending over 20 billion training the army and what did it produce? A fail army, that's what.

Obama didn't help the situation but had we never invaded Iraq IS would have never been born. Their leader was once in our custody. Obama, Bush, who cares, they same agenda runs no matter who we call our prez. It's the DC agenda that created IS and it's their fault IS grew to what it has become.

Opinions are like...

originally posted by: Swills

Second guess which military? Iraq's? If so are you not aware of how much of a failure they are?

Obama desperately needed something out of his 100 failures to say, YES I did it. Well it just happened to be to leave Iraq...totally, void of any help...thank you Obama... Obama might as well be isis employee of the month for all he did to make it happen.

a reply to: Xtrozero

You're wasting your time blaming Obama. It was Bush who started that war and he who pulled the troops out, although Obama will always take credit for it just cuz it happened under his watch. But Bush was just a puppet, one of the most obvious of presidential puppets. You could be pres right now and the same Middle Eastern agenda will continue to churn.

Iraq is definitely not devoid of any help.

originally posted by: Swills

Iraq is definitely not devoid of any help.

sucks to be at the top....

Well they are not, but who is stepping up to help/

a reply to: Xtrozero

Iraq is fully supported by the US via foreign aid, military arms, military training/support, the largest US embassy ever created, US contractors, and western/Gulf allies also support them. So what are you talking about?

originally posted by: Swills

Iraq is fully supported by the US via foreign aid, military arms, military training/support, the largest US embassy ever created, US contractors, and western/Gulf allies also support them. So what are you talking about?

Have you been to Iraq? they have no heart....1000 run when they go up against 50. I spent about 2 years of my life over there.

a reply to: Swills

Fully supported, you cannot be serious!! Saying you can have bombing missions but no support on the ground is not fully supporting anything! If you decide a threat is big enough to warrant military action then you go full on NOT half ass like Obama has!! That is stupid and any combat VET would tell you that....Once that decision is made to GO TO WAR, YOU GO TO WIN, AT ANY COST NOT BASED ON RULES OF ENGAGEMENT THAT CRIPPLE YOUR OWN MILITARY OR TO PLAY POLITICS!!

If you do not go to win then why bother! Some things in life must be based on ALL or NOTHING! When human Lives are at stake
it's not a game! READ the book Edicts of Eros written by "Dooper" One of the best members of ATS we have ever had! It's not a pretty read but very straight forward and Right On Point!!

and XTROZERO, Thank you for your service and my freedom!!

Pax

a reply to: Xtrozero

I'm well aware of what a failure the Iraqi army is. I've made that point very clear in all of my posts.

a reply to: paxnatus

lol oh boy, I totally disagree. Going into Iraq in the first place is what got us into this mess and going back into Iraq is a terrible idea. You know who else supports another Iraqi war? Dick Cheney. Do you like him?

Iraq is fully supported by the west, how you can argue this is beyond me.