SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
As More American Boots Hit the Ground in Syria, U.S. Parses 'Boots' and 'Ground'
After President Obama announced on Monday that he would deploy 250 additional special operations troops to Syria, State Department spokesperson John Kirby tried to deny that Obama had ever promised not to send "boots on the ground" there.
"There was never this 'no boots on the ground,'" said Kirby. "I don't know where this keeps coming from."
Apr 29, 2016
After President Obama announced on Monday that he would deploy 250 additional special operations troops to Syria, State Department spokesperson John Kirby tried to deny that Obama had ever promised not to send "boots on the ground" there.
"There was never this 'no boots on the ground,'" said Kirby. "I don't know where this keeps coming from."
The problem for Kirby was that Obama had repeated the promise at least 16 times since 2013:
For instance, on August 30, 2013, Obama said: "We're not considering any boots-on-the-ground approach."
On September 10, 2013, he said: "Many of you have asked, won't this put us on a slippery slope to another war? One man wrote to me that we are 'still recovering from our involvement in Iraq.' A veteran put it more bluntly: 'This nation is sick and tired of war.' My answer is simple: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria."
On September 7, 2014, he said: "In Syria, the boots on the ground have to be Syrian."
After reporters pointed out the mistake, Kirby tried to walk back his claim by defining the phrase "boots on the ground" to exclude special forces.
"When we talk about boots on the ground, in the context that you have heard people in the administration speak to, we are talking about conventional, large-scale ground troops," said Kirby. "I'm not disputing the fact that we have troops on the ground, and they're wearing boots."
The new deployment will result in a six-fold increase to the 50 U.S. special forces troops already in Syria. There are also 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The White House has insisted that its forces "do not have a combat mission" and are deployed in an "advise and assist" capacity only, helping to train local militias that engage ISIS directly.
There is, as Kirby indicated, a distinction between a large-scale ground invasion and, say, a small group of advisers hanging back from the front. But the line between "combat" and "assist" missions is not always so clear.
Read the full article at The Intercept
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Zaid Jilani
Zaid Jilani is a journalist for The Intercept. He has previously worked as a reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress, United Republic, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Alternet.
Alex Emmons
Alex Emmons is an intern for The Intercept, in Washington D.C. He was formerly a human rights activist with Amnesty International and the ACLU.
After President Obama announced on Monday that he would deploy 250 additional special operations troops to Syria, State Department spokesperson John Kirby tried to deny that Obama had ever promised not to send "boots on the ground" there.
"There was never this 'no boots on the ground,'" said Kirby. "I don't know where this keeps coming from."
The problem for Kirby was that Obama had repeated the promise at least 16 times since 2013:
For instance, on August 30, 2013, Obama said: "We're not considering any boots-on-the-ground approach."
On September 10, 2013, he said: "Many of you have asked, won't this put us on a slippery slope to another war? One man wrote to me that we are 'still recovering from our involvement in Iraq.' A veteran put it more bluntly: 'This nation is sick and tired of war.' My answer is simple: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria."
On September 7, 2014, he said: "In Syria, the boots on the ground have to be Syrian."
After reporters pointed out the mistake, Kirby tried to walk back his claim by defining the phrase "boots on the ground" to exclude special forces.
"When we talk about boots on the ground, in the context that you have heard people in the administration speak to, we are talking about conventional, large-scale ground troops," said Kirby. "I'm not disputing the fact that we have troops on the ground, and they're wearing boots."
The new deployment will result in a six-fold increase to the 50 U.S. special forces troops already in Syria. There are also 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The White House has insisted that its forces "do not have a combat mission" and are deployed in an "advise and assist" capacity only, helping to train local militias that engage ISIS directly.
There is, as Kirby indicated, a distinction between a large-scale ground invasion and, say, a small group of advisers hanging back from the front. But the line between "combat" and "assist" missions is not always so clear.
Read the full article at The Intercept
Zaid Jilani
Zaid Jilani is a journalist for The Intercept. He has previously worked as a reporter-blogger for ThinkProgress, United Republic, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, and Alternet.
Alex Emmons
Alex Emmons is an intern for The Intercept, in Washington D.C. He was formerly a human rights activist with Amnesty International and the ACLU.
After President Obama announced on Monday that he would deploy 250 additional special operations troops to Syria, State Department spokesperson John Kirby tried to deny that Obama had ever promised not to send "boots on the ground" there.
"There was never this 'no boots on the ground,'" said Kirby. "I don't know where this keeps coming from."
The problem for Kirby was that Obama had repeated the promise at least 16 times since 2013:
For instance, on August 30, 2013, Obama said: "We're not considering any boots-on-the-ground approach."
On September 10, 2013, he said: "Many of you have asked, won't this put us on a slippery slope to another war? One man wrote to me that we are 'still recovering from our involvement in Iraq.' A veteran put it more bluntly: 'This nation is sick and tired of war.' My answer is simple: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria."
On September 7, 2014, he said: "In Syria, the boots on the ground have to be Syrian."
After reporters pointed out the mistake, Kirby tried to walk back his claim by defining the phrase "boots on the ground" to exclude special forces.
"When we talk about boots on the ground, in the context that you have heard people in the administration speak to, we are talking about conventional, large-scale ground troops," said Kirby. "I'm not disputing the fact that we have troops on the ground, and they're wearing boots."
The new deployment will result in a six-fold increase to the 50 U.S. special forces troops already in Syria. There are also 4,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The White House has insisted that its forces "do not have a combat mission" and are deployed in an "advise and assist" capacity only, helping to train local militias that engage ISIS directly.
There is, as Kirby indicated, a distinction between a large-scale ground invasion and, say, a small group of advisers hanging back from the front. But the line between "combat" and "assist" missions is not always so clear.
Read the full article at The Intercept
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.