An undercover military buildup is happening in Iraq.

Something weird is going on in Iraq.

I did a quick rundown of units being sent there and suddenly it looks like we have a mixed Army, Marine division already.  Consider..

*  1,000 Paratroopers from the 82nd were scheduled to head there this past January.

*  We have approx 3000 Marines in Iraq.  They're a mix of different units.  A SPMAGTF-CR, FAST Company and an Enhanced Embassy Security Force as well as trainers for the Iraq military.

*  Then today we have word that approx 4000 soldiers from the 4th ID are headed there.

Of course these totals don't include anything that SOCOM or our allies are doing.  It also doesn't include the SPMAGTF-CR based in Spain or the Marines aboard ship in the region.  Also excluded are USAF units and Navy ships.

I'm miss reading the tea leaves you say?  Then recall this old tidbit of news....

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Sept. 25, 2014) -- Soldiers from the "Big Red One" 1st Infantry Division headquarters will deploy to Iraq next month from Fort Riley, Kansas, DOD officials announced today.
"Yesterday the secretary (of Defense) signed a deployment for about 500 Soldiers from 1st ID headquarters," Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby said at a Pentagon news conference.

About 200 of the 1st ID Soldiers will go to Iraq and another 300 will be elsewhere in the Central Command area of responsibility.

Of the division Soldiers deploying to Iraq, 138 will go to Bagdad and another 68 will serve in Erbil, near where Peshmerga (Kurdish) troops are pushing back forces of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, known as ISIL, from the borders of Kurdistan.

In Baghdad, 1ID Soldiers will staff the Joint Operations Center and provide command and control of U.S. troops in the country, who are advising and assisting Iraqi security forces. Division Soldiers will also conduct intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance flights, according to 1st ID leaders. They said this will "increase the United States' capacity to target ISIL and coordinate the activities of the U.S. military across Iraq."

You don't send an Army Division Headquarters unit to coordinate airstrikes.  You send them to coordinate ground combat operations.

You heard it here first.  The US is prepping for ground combat operations in Iraq.