From an article just posted at cnn.com:
PresidentBarack Obama is sending up 1,500 more soldiers to Iraq to train Iraqiand Kurdish forces to fight ISIS, in a deployment that would bringthe total number of American troops there to 2,900.
TheWhite House said in a statement that it will also ask Congress foranother $5.6 billion to fund the fight against ISIS. The troops willnot have a combat role, and will operate from bases outside Baghdadand Erbil.
Adding these troops is absolutely necessary.
Way too late and possibly way too little. But absolutely necessary.
What if President Obama had done the right thing in the first place? What if he had insisted on – coerced if he had to – keeping a significant residual force in Iraq when we removed the troops in 2011?
Would ISIS have been able to become what it has? Would thousands of people still be alive?
We\’ll never know for sure. But we do know for sure what has happened since he instead had them all pulled – and then bragged about ending the war, even though the troop removal he took full credit for was negotiated, and signed, by President Bush in November, 2008.
I\’m glad the voters spoke so clearly on Tuesday. How I wish they had done so two years ago.
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UPDATE: I just caught a report that our generals had begged President Obama for these troops in September – but that, for purely political reasons he held the decision up until after election day.
If this is true it is beyond despicable. How many people have died during that time at the hands of ISIS – people who might be alive today if he had acted out of need and principle instead of cynical politics?
Again, if this is true – I\’ll have a lot more to say about it in future blogs.
