Release No: NR-225-15
June 10, 2015
June 10, 2015
Statement from the Department of Defense on Additional U.S. Personnel to Deploy to Iraq (click here)
The commander in chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Ash Carter
to deploy to Iraq up to 450 additional U.S. personnel in a non-combat
role, to expand our advise and assist mission at Taqaddum Air Base in
support of the Government of Iraq.
The intent of this increase will be to provide personnel to assist with planning, integration and support of Iraqi Security Forces and tribal forces as they fight to retake the Ramadi and Fallujah corridor. U.S. forces will provide operational advice and planning support the Iraqi Security Forces, to include the 8th Iraqi Army Division and other security forces associated with the Government of Iraq.
This mission will also enable tribal outreach as part of the plan Prime Minister Al-Abadi led the Council of Ministers in passing on May 19 to accelerate the training and equipping of local tribes in coordination with Anbar authorities.
This decision does not represent a change in mission, but rather adds another location for DoD to conduct similar activities in more areas in Iraq. U.S. forces continue to perform an advisory, training, and support role and are not conducting offensive ground combat operations. The additional site will result in an increase in DoD force levels to up to 3,550 personnel.
Ultimately, these Iraqi forces will enable Iraq to better defend its citizens and retake its territory from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This effort is in keeping with our overarching strategy to work with partners on the ground to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.
At the height of the so called passive mission by the USA in Vietnam there were 5000 personnel in that country. After the assassination of President Kennedy; President Johnson began a draft to carry out a full scale war. We know the history. This is the same exact content that began Vietnam.
Al Taqaddum Airbase (click here) is located in central Iraq approximately 74
kilometers West of Baghdad. The airfield is served by two runways 13,000
and 12,000 feet long. According to the "Gulf War Air Power Survey,
there were 24 hardened aircraft shelters Al Taqaddum. At the each end
of the main runway are hardened aircraft shelters knowns as "trapezoids"
or "Yugos" which were build by Yugoslavian contractors some time prior
to 1985. Al Taqaddum is one of the few Iraqi air bases not located
inside the "No-Fly Zone."
The idea renewing a war in Iraq would make the USA safer is nonsense. The threat of Daesh to The West is from within the borders of the country. If the entire of Daesh were annihilated tomorrow that would not change anything within the borders of The West. Training isn't going to change a darn thing.
July 27, 1964
It is announced that the United States (click here) will send an additional 5,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam, bringing the total number of U.S. forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Military spokesmen and Washington officials insisted that this did not represent any change in policy, and that new troops would only intensify existing U.S. efforts. However, the situation changed in August 1964 when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers off the coast of North Vietnam. What became known as the Tonkin Gulf incident led to the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which passed unanimously in the House and 88 to 2 in the Senate....
Just like Vietnam, Iraq is a political movement. Iraq, today, doesn't exist. President Johnson was convinced the USA would wipe out any North Vietnam influence in Southern Vietnam. Over a million citizens dead and over 50 thousand American soldiers later, it was a political icon for three separate presidents, including Richard Nixon.
The country known as Iraq has shifting borders. The country doesn't exist except in the ideology of the USA military.
The intent of this increase will be to provide personnel to assist with planning, integration and support of Iraqi Security Forces and tribal forces as they fight to retake the Ramadi and Fallujah corridor. U.S. forces will provide operational advice and planning support the Iraqi Security Forces, to include the 8th Iraqi Army Division and other security forces associated with the Government of Iraq.
This mission will also enable tribal outreach as part of the plan Prime Minister Al-Abadi led the Council of Ministers in passing on May 19 to accelerate the training and equipping of local tribes in coordination with Anbar authorities.
This decision does not represent a change in mission, but rather adds another location for DoD to conduct similar activities in more areas in Iraq. U.S. forces continue to perform an advisory, training, and support role and are not conducting offensive ground combat operations. The additional site will result in an increase in DoD force levels to up to 3,550 personnel.
Ultimately, these Iraqi forces will enable Iraq to better defend its citizens and retake its territory from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). This effort is in keeping with our overarching strategy to work with partners on the ground to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL.
At the height of the so called passive mission by the USA in Vietnam there were 5000 personnel in that country. After the assassination of President Kennedy; President Johnson began a draft to carry out a full scale war. We know the history. This is the same exact content that began Vietnam.
The idea renewing a war in Iraq would make the USA safer is nonsense. The threat of Daesh to The West is from within the borders of the country. If the entire of Daesh were annihilated tomorrow that would not change anything within the borders of The West. Training isn't going to change a darn thing.
July 27, 1964
It is announced that the United States (click here) will send an additional 5,000 U.S. troops to Vietnam, bringing the total number of U.S. forces in Vietnam to 21,000. Military spokesmen and Washington officials insisted that this did not represent any change in policy, and that new troops would only intensify existing U.S. efforts. However, the situation changed in August 1964 when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers off the coast of North Vietnam. What became known as the Tonkin Gulf incident led to the passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, which passed unanimously in the House and 88 to 2 in the Senate....
Just like Vietnam, Iraq is a political movement. Iraq, today, doesn't exist. President Johnson was convinced the USA would wipe out any North Vietnam influence in Southern Vietnam. Over a million citizens dead and over 50 thousand American soldiers later, it was a political icon for three separate presidents, including Richard Nixon.
The country known as Iraq has shifting borders. The country doesn't exist except in the ideology of the USA military.
