Tuesday, September 16, 2014

U.S. Secretary Of Defense: We Are At War With ISIL



Hagel Tells U.S. Senate: 'We Are At War With ISIL' -- UPI

At a Senate hearing on America's military strategy to combat the Islamic State, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey testified that, if necessary, he would recommend U.S. troops fight alongside Iraqis.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, testified Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee concerning the military strategy to combat the Islamic State, also known as ISIL.

"We are at war with ISIL, as we are with al-Qaeda," Hagel told the Committee.

When commenting on U.S. military support to Iraq, Dempsey acknowledged that, if needed, he would recommend utilizing an unspecified number of the 1,600 deployed military advisers in a ground force capacity to bolster the Iraqi forces in their fight against IS.

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Update: Hagel says US 'at war' with IS, pledges sustained effort -- Deutsche Welle

My Comment: No kidding.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

America has a long history of being chickensh t and not declaring war.

The did not declare war in 1803 to 1805. Yet the U.S. fought and initially without Congressional approval.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States

Ropestuff said...

If we went to war at every provocation and didn't pillage our enemies we would all be wearing homemade shoes and eating grass. If we pillaged we would be viewed as the Vikings were and things would go very badly for America. Some people already claim the latter.

There are big differences between some highly trained highly disciplined operators spread out working out the "kinks", and a formal declared war. One difference I see is a matter of just how many people need to be taken out of the fight. ISIS just happens to be the flag for a lot of people who need to be taken out of the fight. Chicken or not, sometimes we can't walk away from the fight and this looks like an important fight. I think the longer you can go without officially being "at war", the better. With this many people involved it's hard to slide under the radar of war. I think the matter of the declaration is in what the rest of the war calls it. Of course the pope is calling this WW III.