Obama’s New Syrian War Cycles Up: Weapons Industry is Thrilled

Any action that increases USA military pressure on the terrorist entity is welcome, but the steps Mr. Obama approved are incremental and underpowered.

“We are going to continue to innovate to build up what works”, he told reporters flying with him to Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska, on the first leg of a nine-day trip to the Asia-Pacific region.

Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Ash Carter says outright that United States “advisers” will see more combat in Iraq.

“Historical” European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said that the meeting had been “definitely not an easy one” but “for sure a historical one”. The goal, for now, is simply to incrementally reinforce those areas that are working and abandon initiatives that are not. He said in most cases, he supports Obama’s move to ban federal agencies from asking job applicants who have faced convictions but served their time about those convictions. The YPG is widely believed to be the dominant force in the new democratic forces coalition and the only one that can call in USA airstrikes.

But the greatest hurdle to Congress setting the terms for US engagement with ISIS may be coming from within its own ranks.

Bush applauded Obama for deciding to deploy special forces. In Iraq and Syria, the president has incrementally boosted the USA force, beginning an initial deployment of several hundred troops to Iraq in 2014, after Iraqi army forces in Mosul were overrun by Islamic State fighters. “Sending 50 American special forces into Syria in the eyes of [Isis] shows that Obama is not “all in”, it is a sign of weakness”, Graham added. The American troops will help local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS with logistics and are planning to bolster their efforts. But here is my nightmare: “My nightmare is that the United States once again gets caught up in a quagmire, which never ends and which leads to perpetual warfare”, Sanders said.

ISIL has barbarically killed and tortured many innocent civilians.

The U.S.-led coalition has been bombing IS targets for more than a year, but critics contend the strikes are half-hearted at best and too few and infrequent compared to other US air wars over the last 20 years.

Greek authorities say 21 people have died after two boats carrying migrants and refugees from Turkey to Greece sank overnight, in the latest deadly incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea.

A joint rebel force in Syria consisting of Sunni Arabs, Assyrians and Kurds announced it was launching an offensive to liberate portions of the country’s northeastern al-Hasakah province from Islamic State militants. It is not clear how many rebel groups would agree to a plan that doesn’t result in Assad’s immediate departure.

The USA launched air strikes against IS in Iraq and Syria just over a year ago, with a number of allies including France, and the Netherlands participating in the attacks.

So far, it’s a strategy that hasn’t draw much support in Washington.

Friday’s announcement prompted debate on the presidential campaign trail, but no wild cheers from Democratic or Republican candidates vying to succeed Obama in 2017.

The FRC spokesman contends Obama’s decision will create more doubt about his overall strategy in the region.

Flournoy said the addition of USA air controllers to call in airstrikes and Apache helicopters, combined with the measures the president is already taking, could accelerate gains on the battlefield.

A few liberal Democrats described the president’s moves as a slippery slope to a deeper USA commitment. The announcement today would be an expansion that reaches not only toward the front lines of a military conflict that has yet to be explicitly authorized by Congress, but also extends into the sovereign territory of another country.

Both the White House and the State Department insisted Friday that the Syria strategy had not changed.