Roughly 6,000 U.S. troops will take part in this year’s “Eager Lion” exercise in Jordan from May 25 to June 8, a Defense Department spokesman said.Uh excuse me?
Eager Lion involves a total of more than 12,500 troops from more than 20 countries, Cmdr. William Speaks told Military Times on Tuesday. The major U.S. units taking part include the Army’s 17th Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Armored Division; the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade; elements of the Navy’s Task Force 51/59; and the 407th Air Expeditionary Group.
The U.S. troops taking part in the exercise will not stay in Jordan for military operations in the region, said Army Lt. Col. T.G. Taylor, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command. Last year, the U.S. military left Patriot missiles and F-16 fighters in Jordan to counter potential threats from the civil war in neighboring Syria, but Taylor said there are no such plans this year.
This year’s exercise involves scenarios ranging from training for a humanitarian assistance to practicing integrated air and missile defense, Taylor told Military Times on Tuesday.
Since the pullout of U.S. troops from Iraq and the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, al-Qaida has seized a considerable amount of territory in both countries. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is a particularly virulent al-Qaida affiliate that reportedly has thousands of foreign fighters and has outgunned the Iraqi military.
The Eager Lion training scenarios this year are not geared toward combating ISIL, Taylor said.
The 1st MEB, 1st Armored Division and a Field Artillery Brigade are going to Jordan?
That sounds like a whole lot more than an exercise.
Quite honestly with the Pentagon suffering a so-called budget crunch this seems more like a contingency force.
It might be nothing but I'll be watching this closely.
It's an annual affair, with elements of those units. Nothing to see here.
ReplyDeletei know its an annual exercise but the idea of sending 6000 US Soldiers and Marines anywhere with a shits and giggles approach in these economic conditions is craziness.
DeleteMaybe its a show of force to all those ISIS chaps. Annual or not, any person will want to show off awesome firepower and jointness of the participating nations off to the opposition ISIS and any potential troublemakers. On the matter of ISIS and other rabbble rouser movements, Saddams Torture.....but Secular Torture (everyone gets tortured equally...religion no bar) regime proved to be very good at quashing such movements. Ayway, from the time of Babylonia...this region has been a hot bed of military/insurgency/tribal warfare activity. WOnt stop now just because the americans were here.Just like the Achaemenids couldnt stop them, the greeks couldnt, the romans couldnt, turks couldnt, even medevial Islam couldnt, and modern current day islam also cant. They are confined to 3000 year old habits of Medes vs Assyrians vs Sumerians vs Akadians vs Hitties vs blah blah blah. What you are seeing now is the fighting of current day generations ancestors wrapped around in Islam.
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