“Non-combat troops” in Iraq
There was a great question posed by Foreign Policy‘s Joshua Keating on what the difference is between the upcoming “non-combat troops” in Iraq, and combat troops in Iraq:
Whatever you want them to be. The distinction is more political than military. The White House says the remaining troops will “train and advise Iraqi Security Forces; conduct partnered and targeted counter-terrorism operations; and protect ongoing U.S. civilian and military efforts.” All of this has the potential to involve quite a bit of combat.
I agree that this notion is quite the fantastical assumption. Lest we not forget that MACV (Military Assistance Command-Vietnam) went from 16 “advisers” to 22,000 in under a year before the war “started.” This included fighter pilots getting shot down on strategic bombing and recon missions.
It looks like on the proposed date for the combat-troop pullout on Aug 31 Obama may brush the dust off the infamous “Mission Accomplished” banner. Because we all know how that worked out.
It’s amazing how quickly the quagmire of Iraq has faded from public memory. Understandably the focus has (finally) shifted to Afghanistan. But as the aforementioned alluded to leader has said: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… you can’t get fooled again…”
All you serving in Iraq, what do you think? If you’re heading to Iraq after this month, should we still give out right sleeve patches?!
~Spartz"Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strength. When you go through hardship and decide not to surrender, that is strength."
-Arnold Schwarzenegger
August 15th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
The change here is all strictly an arbitrary name change. There’s nothing momentous that will happen on 1SEP other than the name of the mission has changed and we’re hardcore force-capped. There’s still IEDs, suicide bombers blowing people up, mortars and all the goods. The only difference is we’re not going on “combat patrols” anymore, we’re conducting “stability operations”. Same stuff, different name. Hello Operation Red Dawn, er, New Dawn. We’ll see which name holds true in the next few months…
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:18 pm
Our name changed from “Brigade Combat Team” to “Advisory and Assistance Brigade.” That’s about it.
December 22nd, 2011 at 5:49 pm
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