Terrorism

Obama called out; 16 times he vowed no troops in Syria

090703-M-6159T-116 U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Ryan Pettit (left) and Cpl. Matthew Miller with 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment fire their service rifles during an operation in the Helmand province of Afghanistan on July 3, 2009. The Marines are part of the ground combat element of Regiment Combat Team 3, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade. DoD photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, U.S. Marine Corps. (Released)
U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Ryan Pettit (left) and Cpl. Matthew Miller of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment.  DoD photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau, U.S. Marine Corps.

While the ballyhoo and huzzahs at both the 2008 and 2012 Democratic National Conventions greeted Barack Obama’s promises to end America’s combat involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan, not only has neither been honored, but now the same man who won the Nobel Peace Prize has ordered American combat troops into another Middle Eastern nation.

As reported by Gregory Korte of USA TODAY on Oct. 31, 2015, and also by Nancy A. Youssef of The Daily Beast on Oct. 30, 2015, the campaign promises of Barack Obama are quite different from the orders given by Commander-in-Chief Obama.

During the course of his years in the White House, the community organizer from Waikiki has just shattered his oft-given pledge not to have the proverbial boots on the ground in Syria. While the Western media heaped über-homage on Obama during the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in 2009, the same military exit was reversed by 2014, but not quite as well covered by the same media.

On the heels of it being publicly announced that “less than 50” American troops designated as Special Operations Forces will be deployed onto Syrian soil to “train and advise.” As The Daily Beast’s Youssef cited, the phrase “train and advise” is “the very same language the Pentagon used when it first sent a few hundred troops to Iraq a year ago. There are now 3,000 troops there…”

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As previously covered by Examiner.com on July 2, 2014, multiple sources were cited and linked to detailing upwards of 600 hundred Marines and Army Special Forces were sent to Iraq to beef-up security for the massive US embassy in Baghdad’s famed Green Zone. Curiously, it was also quietly revealed that of the 600 additional troops sent to augment the embassy’s Marine Security Guard Detachment, 200 of the Leathernecks were assigned specifically to provide perimeter security to the nearby Baghdad International Airport.

As USA TODAY’s Korte dug deep into the news archives, he uncovered a full 16 different occasions when Obama promised in public that no ground combat troops would ever be introduced into the middle of the Syrian civil war/terrorist invasion:

  • So again, I repeat, we’re not considering any open-ended commitment. We’re not considering any boots-on-the-ground approach.” – Remarks before meeting with Baltic State leaders, Aug. 30, 2013
  • “We would not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope.” – Remarks in the Rose Garden, Aug. 31, 2013
  • “So the key point that I want to emphasize to the American people: The military plan that has been developed by our Joint Chiefs — and that I believe is appropriate — is proportional. It is limited. It does not involve boots on the ground. This is not Iraq, and this is not Afghanistan.” – Statement before meeting with congressional leaders, Sept. 3, 2013
  • “I think America recognizes that, as difficult as it is to take any military action — even one as limited as we’re talking about, even one without boots on the ground — that’s a sober decision.” – News conference in Stockholm, Sweden, Sept. 4, 2013
  • “The question for the American people is, is that responsibility that we’ll be willing to bear? And I believe that when you have a limited, proportional strike like this — not Iraq, not putting boots on the ground; not some long, drawn-out affair; not without any risks, but with manageable risks — that we should be willing to bear that responsibility.” – News conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sept. 6, 2013
  • “What we’re not talking about is an open-ended intervention. This would not be another Iraq or Afghanistan. There would be no American boots on the ground.” – Weekly radio address, Sept. 7, 2013
  • “Tomorrow I’ll speak to the American people. I’ll explain this is not Iraq; this is not Afghanistan; this is not even Libya. We’re not talking about — not boots on the ground. We’re not talking about sustained airstrikes.” – Interview with the PBS Newshour, Sept. 9, 2013
  • “What I’m going to try to propose is that we have a very specific objective, a very narrow military option, and one that will not lead into some large-scale invasion of Syria or involvement or boots on the ground; nothing like that.” – Interview with CBS Evening News, Sept. 9, 2013
  • “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.” – Address to the Nation, Sept. 10, 2013
  • “We are doing everything we can to see how we can do that and how we can resource it. But I’ve looked at a whole lot of game plans, a whole lot of war plans, a whole bunch of scenarios, and nobody has been able to persuade me that us taking large-scale military action even absent boots on the ground, would actually solve the problem.” – Interview on Bloomberg View, Feb, 27, 2014
  • “With respect to the situation on the ground in Syria, we will not be placing U.S. ground troops to try to control the areas that are part of the conflict inside of Syria.” – News conference in Newport, Wales, Sept. 5, 2014
  • The notion that the United States should be putting boots on the ground, I think would be a profound mistake. And I want to be very clear and very explicit about that.” – Interview with Meet the Press, Sept. 7, 2014
  • “I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.” – Address to the Nation on Syria, Sept. 10, 2014
  • “Right now we’re moving forward in conjunction with outstanding allies like Australia in training Iraqi security forces to do their job on the ground.” – News conference in Brisbane, Australia, Nov. 16, 2014
  • “The resolution we’ve submitted today does not call for the deployment of U.S. ground combat forces to Iraq or Syria. It is not the authorization of another ground war, like Afghanistan or Iraq. … As I’ve said before, I’m convinced that the United States should not get dragged back into another prolonged ground war in the Middle East.” – Remarks at the White House, Feb. 11, 2015
  • “It is not enough for us to simply send in American troops to temporarily set back organizations like ISIL, but to then, as soon as we leave, see that void filled once again with extremists.” – Remarks at the Pentagon, July 6, 2015

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