All eyes are on Iraq so I decided that now is as good a time as any to do a quick and dirty "order of battle" for US forces. Note that we aren't including European forces which I find strange. It appears that they've completely washed their hands of this wretched country.
300 Green Berets (US Army Special Forces)
Forgive me but first a pet peeve. I've been listening to news reports that are saying US Special Forces are going into Iraq as advisors and that they are not combat troops. ARE YOU SHITTING ME! Additionally they seem to not realize that Special Forces is not a catch all for Special Operations. But back to the task at hand. These guys will be in the sand. They will be calling for fire. They will be leading Iraqi units. They will be in combat.
USMC Fleet Anti-Terrorist Security Teams (FAST Co.)
FAST Company is on deck at the embassy and this is their bread and butter. From news reports it appears that only one platoon (reinforced) has been deployed but I imagine we will be seeing alot more of these boys headed that way. The embassy is huge. If fighting gets closer they will need more boots on the ground.
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George HW Bush Aircraft Carrier.
Trouble hit and what was the first thing the combatant commander called for? An aircraft carrier. Quite honestly I don't know if its just the hubris of realizing that you can tell 5000 plus sailors to turn around and head your way or if they'll actually launch against ISIS, but the firepower is there if needed.
USS Mesa Verde.
I don't quite get this one. Why break up the MEU with an incident this large going on? I get that they want to play with distributed operations from the sea but to think that an LPD will be able to handle an evacuation of the embassy along with a carrier is stupid. Real stupid.
Conclusion.
I'm sure there are other moves happening that I/we don't have visibility on. The curious thing is that this seems extremely disjointed. Poorly planned. Haphazard. I CAN'T SEE THE PLAN IN THESE MOVES.
Its almost like some huge show of force but with the problem of the forces being so misaligned that they actually can't do their jobs properly if called on. Yes. I know I'm playing arm chair commander but most of this doesn't actually make sense. We'll see if it clears up over the next few days but so far I'm unimpressed.
300 Green Berets (US Army Special Forces)
Forgive me but first a pet peeve. I've been listening to news reports that are saying US Special Forces are going into Iraq as advisors and that they are not combat troops. ARE YOU SHITTING ME! Additionally they seem to not realize that Special Forces is not a catch all for Special Operations. But back to the task at hand. These guys will be in the sand. They will be calling for fire. They will be leading Iraqi units. They will be in combat.
USMC Fleet Anti-Terrorist Security Teams (FAST Co.)
FAST Company is on deck at the embassy and this is their bread and butter. From news reports it appears that only one platoon (reinforced) has been deployed but I imagine we will be seeing alot more of these boys headed that way. The embassy is huge. If fighting gets closer they will need more boots on the ground.
George HW Bush Aircraft Carrier.
Trouble hit and what was the first thing the combatant commander called for? An aircraft carrier. Quite honestly I don't know if its just the hubris of realizing that you can tell 5000 plus sailors to turn around and head your way or if they'll actually launch against ISIS, but the firepower is there if needed.
USS Mesa Verde.
I don't quite get this one. Why break up the MEU with an incident this large going on? I get that they want to play with distributed operations from the sea but to think that an LPD will be able to handle an evacuation of the embassy along with a carrier is stupid. Real stupid.
Conclusion.
I'm sure there are other moves happening that I/we don't have visibility on. The curious thing is that this seems extremely disjointed. Poorly planned. Haphazard. I CAN'T SEE THE PLAN IN THESE MOVES.
Its almost like some huge show of force but with the problem of the forces being so misaligned that they actually can't do their jobs properly if called on. Yes. I know I'm playing arm chair commander but most of this doesn't actually make sense. We'll see if it clears up over the next few days but so far I'm unimpressed.
