Trump Secretly Sent Hundreds More Troops To Iraq/Syria

(This photo of U.S. troops in Syria is from voiceofdetroit.net.)

Did you know that the United States recently sent 400 Marines to fight in Syria, and 300 more soldiers to fight in Iraq. Probably not, because it was done in secret by the Trump administration. Trump sent those troops without telling the press, the American people, or even Congress. We still would not know if a congressman on the House Armed Services Committee had not asked General Joesph Votel a point blank question -- and rather than get in trouble for lying to Congress, Votel told the truth. He also admitted the Trump administration is currently considering sending even more U.S. troops to those two countries.

The Trump administration has taken the position that announcing troop increases violates some kind of military "security". That's patently ridiculous. Announcing the size of the u.S. troop commitment doesn't give any tactical advantage to the enemy. It does however, let the American people know the extent to which the government is sending young Americans into harm's way. And it gives the people of this country the information they need to judge the efficacy of their government.

That means the United States now has at least 5,700 troops in Iraq and Syria -- and that number doesn't count the more than 1,000 "temporary" troops assigned to that war zone (who aren't counted because their mission is supposedly for 6 months or less).

Add to this 6,700 minimum troop level the 8,400 troops the U.S. still has in Afghanistan, and you realize that the United States still has more than 15,000 troops waging war in the Middle East region -- a war that has been going on for more than 15 years now (since October of 2001).

A reasonable person could conclude that any war that couldn't be won in 15 years probably can't be won at all. But reason is not something that's very popular with our narcissistic leader. He seems to be falling into the same type of fallacious thinking that infected the presidency of Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War -- the thinking that said if you just keep sending more and more troops to the war, you will eventually reach a level that will allow you to win that war. It didn't work in Vietnam, and it has no better chance to work in the Middle East.

Our government has labeled the wars in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan as a "war on terror". That's just not true. You can't win a war against terrorism by using troops to take and hold territory. The terrosists will just melt away and fight somewhere else in the future. They have already shown they don't need to hold territory to commit terrorist acts. There are better ways to fight terrorism -- by using diplomacy, intelligence, and law enforcement.

We will never defeat terrorism by using our military forces, and are very unlikely to even hold the ground they have taken (unless we are willing to leave troops in those countries in perpetuity). We need to stop this madness now -- before our 15,000 troop commitment to eternal war grows larger and larger trying to fight a war that can't be won.Unfortunately, most of our elected leaders in Washington are not bright enough to realize that.

McCain Lies About Troop Level In Iraq

John McCain wants voters to believe he is a straight-talker, unlike other Republicans, and has even named his campaign bus the "Straight Talk Express". So it is particularly disappointing to see him tell a lie, and then refuse to admit it.

The other day, McCain told an audience that U.S. troops in Iraq are back down to pre-surge levels. When it was pointed out that it is simply not true, he got a little miffed and said the withdrawals are currently in the works and will be down to pre-surge levels by the end of July.

Unfortunately, that is not true either. There are some troops in the process of withdrawing, but even after these troops finish their withdrawal at the end of July, there will still be 10,000 more troops in Iraq than before Bush's troop surge.

Maybe this is why he doesn't seem to be bothered by over 4,000 American deaths in Iraq. After all, if he doesn't consider 10,000 troops to be of any significance, why should a mere 4,000 or so deaths be significant?

But this many troops are of great significance to McCain's Democratic opponent. Barack Obama has called for McCain to tell the truth. He says, "We all misspeak sometimes. I've done it myself. So on such a basic, factual error, you'd think that John McCain would just say 'Oh I misspoke, I made a mistake' and then move on. But he couldn't do that, he dug in."

Obama added, "Just like George Bush, John McCain is refusing to admit that he's made a mistake. And that's exactly the kind of leadership that has got us fighting for five years in a war that should have never been authorized. We don't need more leaders who can't admit they've made a mistake, even about something as fundamental as how many Americans are serving in harm's way."

It looks like the "straight-talker" is just like other Republican leaders. He's willing to say anything to get what he wants -- whether it's true or not. This is more evidence that he's just a Bush clone.