More Mission Creep in the GWOT

President Obama has halted the drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

“It is too early to provide exact (troop) numbers, but based on what has been committed in this meeting today, we can say troop level s will be about the same in 2017 as it is in 2016.”
NATO’s long-expected decision to extend its training and advisory campaign, know as Resolute Support, comes on the heels of a decision by Obama to maintain higher-than-planned troop levels in the country. The U.S. will retain 8,400 troops in Afghanistan next year, instead of reducing them to 5,500 by the end of 2016, as originally planned.

Supposedly the war in Afghanistan ended for our troops nearly two years ago. Good thing too. Otherwise we would be in daily combat withe the Taliban.

The top U.S. general in Afghanistan says his forces are using their new authorities—which include airstrikes against the Taliban--"almost daily” in support of the Afghan government's efforts to rid the country of insurgents and terrorists.

Well, OK. At least we aren't hiding hundreds of troops in the area just so we can say that we aren't increasing troop level in Afghanistan.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Tuesday that "some hundreds" of U.S. forces — in addition to the 8,400 that President Barack Obama announced would stay in the country last week — will be based outside Afghanistan, but will be ready to quickly deploy into the warzone if needed.
The decision to place troops outside the country raises questions about the actual reduction in troop totals, since any number of the hundreds could be moved quickly in and out of the country on any given day.

Obama recently announced he was sending another 560 troops to Iraq.

The increase brings the total US force in Iraq to 4,647, and comes just three months after Obama's last troop addition...
In April, Obama gave the go-ahead for American troops to assist Iraqi forces at the brigade and battalion levels, putting US soldiers much closer to the battlefront - although still behind the frontlines.

There was less than 500 troops in Iraq in 2014.
In April, Obama increased troop levels in Syria from 50 to 300.
Also this year, Special Forces have prepared for the invasion of Libya.

American Special Operations troops have been stationed at two outposts in eastern and western Libya since late 2015, tasked with lining up local partners in advance of a possible offensive against the Islamic State, U.S. officials said.

And then there are the troops deployed to Yemen and Somalia.

I'm starting to see a pattern here, and it looks a little bit 19th Century.

Speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival on June 28, Secretary of State John Kerry sought to ease anxiety over an ever-rising global “turmoil and strife” by pointing to an eyebrow-raising fact. "I state unabashedly to every single one of you: The United States of America is more engaged in more places with greater impact today than at any time in American history,” he reassured the audience. “And that is simply documentable and undeniable.”
Kerry made it clear that when he talks about “engagement,” war is a key part of the equation

Can we finally use the word "Empire"?

Kerry’s observation of unprecedented engagement may, in fact, be an understatement. As David Vine, the author of the book Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, noted in 2015, the United States “probably has more foreign military bases than any other people, nation, or empire in history.” The roughly 800 U.S. military bases around the world compare to a grand total of zero free-standing foreign bases on U.S. soil, Vine reported.
Meanwhile, Ken McGraw, a spokesman for Special Operations Command, told journalist Nick Turse that, by the 9th month of 2015, special operations forces had already deployed to 135 countries—or 70 percent of all the nations on the planet. This compares to about 60 countries under the George W. Bush years. The Government Accountability Office concluded that special operations funding has ballooned from $3 billion in 2001 to just under $10 billion in 2014.

Or maybe we should use the word "imperialism".

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riverlover's picture

Resolute Support, aka, clenched jaw plus tons of money?

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Haikukitty's picture

They couldn't very well call them "Maternal Nurturing" or "Compassionate Intervention" - although wasn't there one that had the flavor of Compassionate about it? Or am I thinking of "Compassionate Conservatism"? (Where they point out that your garden-variety conservatism is anything but.)

I actually love the names they pick - not because I love them, but because they are so absurd that they make me laugh.

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hecate's picture

all be called Operation Stupid Penis.

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riverlover's picture

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Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.

Bollox Ref's picture

Yeah, the Afghanis are enduring something, but it ain't freedom.

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Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

vtcc73's picture

He wrote what has become known as the Blowback Trilogy. The first book was written in 2000, updated in 2004. I didn't know about it until 2005 when I read his second book in the series, Sorrows of Empire. The first roughly 3/4 of the book is dedicated to a detailed enumeration of the US military bases, outposts, and activities stationed outside of the CONUS. I'm a former USAF officer who has kept, I thought, aware of current military issues but I was astounded to see the vastness of our reach. He goes into this sort of detail to establish a firm base of evidence for the US being a new form of empire. He described it as an nontraditional empire dedicated not to occupation but to influence and control. He makes a powerfully undeniable argument that the US is definitely an empire in every sense.

As amazing as the first part of the book was it is the last 1/4 that blew me away. He makes a compelling argument that our military is only a supporting character playing the enforcer side of empire based on economics. I had no idea.

The trilogy is well worth reading. The reality is that the extent and power of US empire in 2016 dwarfs the one Chalmers wrote about. The third book, Nemesis - released not long before his death in 2010, updates the first two and ties it all together without the excruciating detail of Sorrows. It is sufficient if you don't have the time, money, or patience to dig through three long texts.

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

Map of the Unified Combatant Command. Originally designed to overcome the inter-service rivalries of World War II in the context of the Cold War. Now that the USA is the only superpower it just looks like a worldwide imperial command structure. With 194 golf courses.

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"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."

Sedna's picture

being sent to Poland next year to our list of boots on foreign soil - another mission that has plenty of creep potential. Though these poor sods are "simply" meant as a deterrent to Russia *cough* *cough*...

Troops to Poland by Mid 2017

All of our current and former politicians (especially the evil "her") are delighted with their financial investments in Military Industrial Complex stocks. And war as job creation will be touted as a feather in their caps.

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"So it goes."
Kurt Vonnegut

CaptainPoptart's picture

Polish President Andrzej Duda welcomed on Friday the decision of NATO to station a U.S. battalion in Poland to bolster the eastern flank of the military alliance, increasing troop numbers by up to 4,000.

But if so, it's a good example of mission creep.

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I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance. - e.e.cummings

Oh. Unless it's your kid or my kid that's down range.
Said as a military mom.

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Sandino's picture

The continuity of foreign policy between the Cheney-Bush regime and the Obama regime is disgusting. I bet the Nobel committee will not be so quick to award pre-emptive peace prizes in the future. And Hillary is poised to finish Assad, re-regime change Iran, and likely start a war with Russia. Mission Accomplished!

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