President Barack Obama has signed a new deployment directive to send additional soldiers to Iraq. The extra 1500 troops were sent by the Obama administration to serve in Iraq as advisers, security, and trainers. Most of them will reach Iraq by December. This means that the number of US troops will reach up to around 3,000. The president is asking for additional funding from the Congress to send to Iraq – or at least $5 billion to append to the Iraq funds.
A statement from the White House says that the new troops will not actually be fighting in Iraq, but will be working as supervisors, strategists, and trainers in the field. The troops will be working to assist the military that is already available there who are fighting ISIS / ISIL.
Many Americans and critics are seeing this as a gradual buildup, similar to the buildup in Vietnam that happened slowly over time. Thinking back to the Korean War, this seems to be like mission creep similar to when General MacArthur changed the mission from driving the North Koreans out of South Korea to conquering North Korea and taking the fight to China with nuclear weapons. China ended up invading and driving the Americans back to the 38th Parallel. With Operation Iraqi Freedom being over, it seems that there is a resurgence to get the US involved over there again.
If it is going to happen again, it needs to happen with a clear mission, overwhelming force, and approval from congress.
