U.S. Troops Are Reported Back in Iraq Over Syrian Crisis

New American ^ | Monday, 10 December 2012 12:45 | Jack Kenny

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait and 17,000 more are on their way in response to the civil war in Syria that has spilled over into northern Iraq, according to a report published Monday by Iran's Press TV.

The news follows by four days a report from the Russian news service RT that the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower has joined the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Syria. Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week issued stern warnings to Syria about unspecified but serious "consequences" that would follow if government forces in Syria were to use chemical weapons against insurgents fighting to overthrow the government led by President Bashar al-Assad. The warnings came after reports that intelligence sources have reported signs of activity where the Assad regime is believed to have chemical weapons stored. At the same time, U.S. officials have expressed concern over the possibility that Jihadist elements among the rebel forces might capture those same weapons. Israel is worried — along with Western nations — that the militant Islamic group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and enemy of Israel, might be among the rebels likely to get hold of and use chemical weapons.

The United States and other nations wanting to help the Syrian rebels in their efforts to topple the Assad regime are also concerned about Nusra Front, the one Syrian rebel group with the explicit "stamp of approval from al Qaeda," according to a New York Times report that identified the group as "a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq." A veteran of the al-Qaeda force in Iraq, who said he has led the Nusra Front's efforts in Syria, is quoted in the Times as saying: "This is just a simple way of returning the favor to our Syrian brothers that fought with us on the lands of Iraq."

Faisal al-Maqdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, denied last week that his government has chemical weapons and called the warnings a "pretext for invasion" of Syria by Western nations. "Syria stresses again, for the tenth, the hundredth time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide," Maqdad, said in apparent recognition of the retaliation by outside forces that the use of such weapons would bring.

Without citing specific numbers of troops on the U.S. ships off the Syrian coast, RT reported that the Eisenhower is equipped to carry eight fighter-bombers and 8,000 men, while the Iwo Jima is designed to carry 2,500 U.S. Marines. RT last week also quoted an Australian news report of U.S. covert forces either in or very near Syria, ready to strike. "We have (US) special operations forces at the right posture, they don't have to be sent," an unnamed U.S. official told The Australian.

Germany's cabinet, meanwhile, has approved stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria, a step requiring deployment of NATO troops and arousing fears by the Assad regime that the move is a prelude to an imposition of a no-fly zone in Syria to protect the rebels from aerial bombardment by government forces.

There has been no United Nations resolution authorizing the establishment of either a no-fly zone or of U.S. ground forces. More importantly for the United States, there has been no authorization from Congress, as the Constitution requires, for the Obama administration to intervene militarily in the Syrian conflict. There is, however, a long line of precedents of presidents waging war without congressional approval, including the aerial campaign ordered by President Obama in 2011 in a "humanitarian intervention" to save the rebel forces that toppled the Moammar Gadhafi regime in Libya. Anti-Western, militant Islamic groups involved in the fighting against Gadhafi's forces later participated in the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

[MestaMachine]

I just posted this on another thread. Fits here as well.:

This is a real quandary for obama and hillary. Thus far, neither has made any serious moves to interfere with Iran which is allied with both Turkey AND Syria...and now Egypt. OTHER Western countries want assad’s hide, but i-bama is stalling. It will be interesting to see how he extricates himself from having to make a decision in front of the rest of the western world.

[Intolerant in NJ]

Interesting that our nephew-in-law, a member of the military, went to Iraq a few months ago - we can write him and send Christmas presents, but we can’t address him using his military rank - I guess if we don’t actually call them military we can still claim that we have all our troops out of the country......

[MHT]

As has happened before, when we leave a war zone too quickly, we end up having to go back for one reason or another. Keeping the peace means keeping war away. We are an impatient people and never seem to learn, muchless against an enemy for whom eternity is a blink of the eye. No matter how hard he tries, he leaves “Bush’s war” and goes back, it’s Obama’s war now.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now that is interesting....raises questions of just what is really happening.

[tumblindice]

I hope this won’t interfere with the Obamalamadingdong’s upcoming 3-week, $40,000,000.00 Hawaiian vacation.

[justa-hairyape]

Now that is interesting....raises questions of just what is really happening.

Jabhat al-Nusra is Iraq Al Qeada. So everything they acquire in Syria, can be transported back to Iraq. They are Sunni.

[lonevoice]

Obama's going about it just right -- he's quietly sneaking US troops into Iraq so that we can fight Syria and install yet another al Qaeda dictatorship in the Middle East. America will wake up some day and say "Wha' happen?" Now that's the way to git 'er done!

The al Qaeda whackjobs are battling for control of the Syrian government using the weapons supplied to them in Benghazi, courtesy of the United States. When they topple the Assad regime, they will have complete control of whatever WMD Quadaffi had squirreld away in Libya, plus Syria's WMD, as well as the WMD transferred into Syria by Saddam in 2003.

Of course there's no reason to fear that they will turn these weapons on Israel. Of course not.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Ernest.

[Freeport]

RT reported that the Eisenhower is equipped to carry eight fighter-bombers

Huh? 8 fighter bombers... Just where did these guys pulls this from?

The current Strike Fighter compliment of Carrier Air Wing 7 (Nominal Aircraft):

VFA-83 Strike Fighter Squadron 83 Rampagers F/A-18C Hornet - 12 Aircraft

VFA-103 Strike Fighter Squadron 103 Jolly Rogers F/A-18F Super Hornet - 12 Aircraft

VFA-131 Strike Fighter Squadron 131 Wildcats F/A-18C Hornet - 12 Aircraft

VFA-143 Strike Fighter Squadron 143 Pukin Dogs F/A-18E Super Hornet - 12 Aircraft

So, at a minimum, there are 48 strike aircraft onboard. 8... I think not.

[hal ogen]

Just what could possibly go wrong? All praise nobama!

[daugs2]

But, but,.. I thought he said that “.... America’s war in Iraq will be over”?!?!
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20123800-503544/obama-announces-end-of-iraq-war-troops-to-return-home-by-year-end/
Gosh darn that evil GW Bush....