Saturday, October 24, 2015
Another Inigo Montoya moment
This week it is Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, fresh from being blooded for the job, who gives us another one of those wacky descriptions that just don't fit the situation described.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Friday promised that American forces would participate in more raids like the rescue mission that left an elite Delta Force commando dead. But Carter insisted that those plans will not violate President Barack Obama’s pledge of no American “boots-on-the-ground” in the campaign against the Islamic State.When Crazy Uncle Jim Inhofe makes more sense than the SecDef it really is a moment for Inigo Montoya.
When he ordered the first of 3,000 troops back to Iraq in June 2014, Obama maintained that the Americans’ assignment was only to train Iraqi soldiers, not to engage in ground combat.
Carter maintained that position while at the same time warning the Islamic State to expect more surprise attacks by U.S. commandos.
Saying “we’ll do more raids,” Carter explained: “It doesn’t represent us assuming a combat role. It represents a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission.”
One of Wheeler’s representatives in Congress, Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, wasn’t buying Carter’s parsing of meaning.
“While the (Obama) administration declared an official end to our combat mission in Iraq in 2011, Oklahomans and our nation are reminded today that combat is still a reality for our all-volunteer force in the Middle East,” Inhofe said.
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