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.You don't send an Army Division Headquarters unit to coordinate airstrikes. You send them to coordinate ground combat operations.
"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 heard it here first. The US is prepping for ground combat operations in Iraq.
Here's your twitter feed and facebook page of the international coalition for Operation Inherent Resolve.
ReplyDeleteThunder runs are not enduring military operations, under the new yet to be authorized use of force agreement I wouldn't think. Map out a circuitous route in thru Kuwait and into Iraq, coming out somewhere in Jordan, maybe a secret side trip sightseeing parts of Jordan. Haven't looked at the mileage evolved, but against technical vehicles. Audacity. Though I don't know if the chain of command would go for it.
ReplyDeleteCaptain Solomon, turn the task group into the wind. Launch the alert contractors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaJYlk4z5RQ
ReplyDeletenever made field grade.....but there are no contracts out for Iraq as PMCs.....ISIS is pretty much killing the industry for individuals....and teams would have to be too big to lure people in with common sense.
ReplyDeleteMy rant: The grade and rank system ought to be changed. It may have worked for Napoleon but with better communications and smarter people it's an anachronism to retain a dozen grades and another dozen ranks. Corporations are going to a flatter organizational structure and promoting deserving individuals to positions of responsibility based upon performance, not time in lower ranks/grades, waiting for years. So what happens now? Young people who absolutley know that they can do a better job than some_____ get out rather than just put their time in, waiting and hoping, not daring to take any chances. Rant over.
ReplyDeleteDoes this kind of tanks are still working in Iraq?? I heard that US was take back their army.
ReplyDeletehttp://techpopat.com
Solomon I shared almost this exact information with you in the comments section of an earlier post from December I think(I had issues with the e-mail). Only now is it being truly noticed. I have been reading the tea leaves the same as you have in the above article since September when I first found out about the planned deployment of the 4thID.
ReplyDeleteMy bet's... HQ prepare themselves to imminent Iraq Army collapse, after that Iraq will ask for help... then who you want to go full "help" the US or the Iran? They will be more then happy to enter the power vacuum.
ReplyDeleteThen let's go in to some political fiction zone... Iran enter in full power to "help" Iraq, crush the ISIS and stay in Iraq, create a puppet gov. and then join Iraq in to huge Islam Republic. Not too good for US interests in the region right?
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/brigade-headed-kuwait-largest-us-forces-region-28969112
ReplyDelete