When are we going to see “Boots-on-the-Ground”
Yes, “Boots-on-the-Ground” means fathers, husbands, sons & boyfriends; these days; mothers, wives, daughters & girlfriends as well; but it is a convenient phrase for what is required and implies nothing but respect from this writer at any rate.
There are growing calls for ground forces to be committed in the fight against Daʿesh.
Both the New York Times and “Politico” are running stories about why the Pentagon is hesitant about escalating military action and against committed US troops; allegedly this is because they believe that such an escalation would aid Daʿesh recruiting. For the same reason NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has recently discounted the possibility of NATO ground forces being used.
The White House is not even in favour of increasing air operations. In the Politico report, there is the quote: “If you’re killing 1,000 a month in strikes and they’re replacing them at 2,000 a month, that’s not good math,” Army Brig. Gen. Michael Kurilla, the deputy director of special operations and counter-terrorism on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told West Point’s Combating Terrorism Centre in October.
I’d like to suggest to General Kurilla that it is “Good maths.” (Sorry, General; Brits; if we don’t say “Mathematics” in full, we use an “S” at the end of “Maths.”) It is in fact very good maths; it means that every month, when we kill 1,000, another 2,000 come out of the woodwork, and put themselves in a position to be killed in their turn.
Without the scenario the General describes; those 2,000 would be unidentified, living among us, waiting their opportunity; rather than presenting themselves conveniently for annihilation.
In the New York Times, they quote Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, referring to the need for Daʿesh to be defeated, says, “But it needs to be by local forces — by Sunni Arabs.”
And that is where the US led, Western planning breaks down.
As I’ve said before; elsewhere, the West’s Sunni Arab, supposed “allies” have all reduced to zero their contributions to our air offensive; switching their aircraft to their Shiite Bashing campaign in Yemen. And of course the main beneficiaries of that campaign in Yemen, are al-Qaeda and Daʿesh; the very people we expect our Sunni Arab Allies to send round forces against. And just by the way, there are UAE and Saudi ground forces committed in Yemen as well. Our allies would rather fight Shiites there than their fellow Sunnis, (which al-Qaeda & Daesh are,) anywhere.
So, where will those requisite Muslim Boots-on-the-Ground come from? ->
