Nick Turse Quotes
The U.S. has taken an active role in wars from Libya to the Central African Republic, sent special ops forces into countries from Somalia to South Sudan, conducted airstrikes and abduction missions, even put boots on the ground in countries where it pledged it would not.
Turse, Nick. Tomorrow's Battlefield: U.S. Proxy Wars and Secret Ops in Africa. Haymarket Books, 2015.
ground troops fighting in Iraq & Syria in addition to air power Quote A was made in June of 2014. Quote B, 3 months later in September. In June there are rumors that the Obama administration might commit more military assets to the situation in Iraq and Syria and Graham was afraid that the President might be considering ground troops. Three months later, President Obama announced a policy of making a serious military commitment to the area, but stated that he would not be using ground troops. Graham then criticized the President for NOT deploying ground troops reversing his previous position. This is a marvelous example of the hyper partisanship and the virulent anti-Obama action by the Republicans. Actually, Graham was better than most of the Republicans. He was always polite. He criticized the President’s policies and actions even if he had to twist around to do it. Many of his colleagues made vicious personal attacks on the President and kept spreading rumors that he was not a Christian but a Muslim who was not born in America and was indoctrinated in Islam as a boy. Graham’s flip flop was explained by him as a change that was made necessary by the rise and military aggression of ISIS which he also blamed on the President for not committing more resources to the Syrian insurgents.
3 years later he led America on a huge invasion and nation building project in Iraq. It turned out that had he listened to his own advice and not flip-flopped, the huge cost of the Iraq War might have been avoided.
Four years later the President embarked on a nation-building effort in Iraq which was beset with many problems.
Nick Turse (born 1975) is an American investigative journalist, historian, and author. He is the associate editor and research director of the blog TomDispatch and a fellow at The Nation Institute.
