The President Makes the Right Call in Iraq
Michael Walker, Col USMC (retired)
All,
As a veteran of two tours in Iraq, let me make two points:
First, the Islamic extremists leading ISIS are conducting a genocide based on religious prejudice and hate-filled intolerance of “others.” That is the heart of the matter.
No moral society could embrace such a dismal and violent world vision.
That the President of the United States acted is all to his credit and a credit to the people of the United States of America.
Second, this is not a replay of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The international scope of operation pales in comparison.
In the spring of 2003, the United States sent some 148,00 troops into combat. The United Kingdom committed 46,000 to battle. They were joined by 3,600 soldiers from the Republic of Korea, 2,400 from Poland, 1,630 from the Ukraine (something to think about!), 1,300 Spaniards and a combined total of just over 2,700 from Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, and Japan.
Today, we only have several hundred US special operators in country (less than what Japan ponied up in 2003) and the British have sent in small but elite SAS detachments as well.
The scope of military operations pales in comparison.
In 2003, there were thousands of the armored vehicles and hundred and hundreds of aircraft that carried out tens of thousands of strike sorties in Iraq.
Today, there are no US armored units in Iraq. We have conducted dozens of combat sorties but the multi-day total is far less than what was done during the first hour of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
This is not a replay of 2003. We are not going back to a major ground war in Iraq.
What we are doing is the right thing.
Semper Fi,
Mike
