Posted on 09/12/2014 9:54:16 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
President Obama’s strategy to “degrade and destroy” ISIS comes with an additional 475 American troops gearing up to go to Iraq, bringing the total number of U.S. service members there to over 1,600 – but don’t call those “boots on the ground.”
Like the hundreds of American soldiers already in Iraq, the new crop has not been assigned to any combat duties, the military says, and Thursday that’s how the White House told ABC News it defines “boots on the ground” in this context: “U.S. military service members serving in combat roles.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
This is going to end badly..
It’s started out badly.
When we launch air strikes we almost always have “boots on the ground”. We just don’t talk about it.
By the way, when newsies get hold of a phrase they do tend to wear it out. “Boots on the ground” is one of the most over-used phrases in the newsies’ lexicon. That and “in harm’s way”. They can’t talk without using those two phrases. There are others, too, that just get flogged endlessly. No one said you had to be articulate to be a newsie, I suppose.
"Boots on the ground" is people in theater. It isn't whether they're "assigned a combat role" but whether they can get killed that's important. If the individual in question comes home in a body bag, that sort of angels-dancing-on-a-pin semantics are very little comfort to the individual or his or her family.
This is yet another example (as if we needed another) of the sort of smirking, dorm-room amateurism that has typified the entire approach of this administration to policies both foreign and domestic. Yes, when it comes to those the administration regards as pawns, not people, they actually can try to define dead bodies away - they've already done that with respect to Benghazi, with respect to the Fort Hood terrorism, with respect to beheaded journalists, with respect to Afghanistan ROEs and now Iraq deployments. This isn't detachment, it's callous disregard.
Another one is "fierce battle" -- if it wasn't a fierce battle they wouldn't bother to report it. You could make a whole "laundry list" of these phrases.
Worth repeating, targets hit by US warplane are coordinated with US Special Forces, likely Green Berets, embedded with Iraqi and Kurdish forces. In close combat situations, targets are painted by boots on the ground. Does anyone believe that we would trust an Iraqi to paint a target and call in a US Air Strike?
When you buy 50,000 pairs of Nike sneakers for the 3rd Inf Div and the 1st Cav Div so that they won’t be wearing boots when they arrive “on the ground.”
Shovel-ready boots-on-the-ground.
I assume no boots/combat troops just means they don’t have weapons/ammo to protect themselves. Guess they should have stayed in college eh Kerry?
[ “General” Platt weighs in on the (non) War: ]
Boots on the Ground
Boots on the Ground
You’re a fascist tool
With your Boots on the Ground
With the gun in your hand
Helmet on your head
Boots hit the ground
Call yourself a cool cat
With your Boots on the ground?
Back in Iraq with your Boots on the ground!
Giddy-out!
Hey! Get your Boots off the ground!
Lookin like a tool!
Walkie-talkies & your Boots on the ground!
Hey! Get your Boots off the ground!
Lookin’ like a tool
With your Boots on the Ground
With the gun in your hand
Helmet on your head
Boots on the ground!
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