Sending "Advisors"...We Know What That Means

Obama on sending 450 MORE "advisors" to Iraq: "These new advisers will work to build capacity of Iraqi forces, including local tribal fighters, to improve their ability to plan, lead, and conduct operations.

What's wrong with this on so many levels? Let us name a few:

• Every thinking person knows "advisers" are not just there to train, but are going to get into battle. That will lead to casualties, which will bring the need for more troops, so "they didn't die in vain." This is not Vietnam, but we are also not unaware of the pattern.
• There are now 3,100 US troops back in Iraq, with steady pressure from McCain and Graham to send many more.   How many Iraqi and Syrian lives are they going to take in pursuit of U.S. domination over the region, in the name of subduing Islamic jihadists?
• What does U.S. "training" imply? That Iraqis are in need of American expertise? Because the U.S. has been so effective in turning a country run by a tyrant into an unstable disaster riven by sectarian fighting, soaked in billions gone to munitions and graft, with a population demoralized and desperately opposed to the U.S. imposed government?

There is nothing good U.S. weapons, trainers, bases, and propaganda about the superiority of U.S. "democracy" over the region can do. The  Islamic State and other forces are making advances in western and northern Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Libya, largely because of what the U.S. has already done, including by dominating the region for 70 or so years, with such allies as the Saudi monarchy.

World Can't Wait will continue to challenge whether U.S. might makes right.

Debra Sweet is the Director of World Can't Wait and tweets at @dsweetwcw.