Do not pay the ransom…I escaped!
Finally the toads at my cable company have found the problem……now on to better things…..
Syria is on everyone’s lips….most of us are concerned about the refugees fleeing from the conflict or that ISIS will win there and move on to other lands and peoples……some of us are worried that the US will commit US troops to the nation and that will spiral out of control (of this I am one of those that worry)……
I am a Viet vet and I know what can happen when American special ops people are sent to “advise” another nation or faction…..we had advisers in Vietnam from 1950-1965……
The U.S. military advisory effort in Vietnam had a modest beginning in September 1950, when the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), Vietnam, was established in Saigon. Its mission was to supervise the issuance and employment of $10 million of military equipment to support French legionnaires in their effort to combat Viet Minh forces. By 1953 the amount of U.S. military aid had jumped to over $350 million and was used to replace the badly worn World War II vintage equipment that France, still suffering economically from the devastation of that war, was still using.
By 1961 the steady progress of the insurgency was near crisis levels. The new Kennedy administration increased American support for the Diem regime to prevent a collapse. By December of 1961, 3,200 U.S. military personnel were in Vietnam as advisors, supported by $65 million in military equipment and $136 million in economic aid. Military assistance was reorganized as the United States Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), formed under the command of General Paul D. Harkins in February 1962. MACV was there to support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) to defend the country. MACV included Army Special Forces (Green Beret) instructors and CIA personnel organizing the Montagnards in the mountains.
By 1963, U.S. military advisors in Vietnam had grown to 16,000 and the Americans were firmly identified with the oppressive Diem regime. Outrage over the Diem regime in Washington was communicated to South Vietnamese military leaders, indicating U.S. support for a new government. The Kennedy administration, through the CIA and Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, encouraged a coup in early November 1963 in which Diem and Nhu were assassinated. General Duong Van Minh took over the government and the U.S. was obligated to support him and the series of weak governments that followed. Later than same month, President Kennedy was himself assassinated in Dallas, TX and President Johnson assumed office. Hanoi thought that the new President might be looking to exit Vietnam and calculated that an increase in violence would be the lever to push the U.S. out.
Then the Gulf of Tonkin incident and, as they say the rest is history……
Why did I give this short history lesson of advisers in Vietnam? A great question. We are about to start this process all over again……
A senior administration official said that the U.S. would be deploying “fewer than 50” U.S. Special Operations forces to Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria. The American troops will help local Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS with logistics and are planning to bolster their efforts.
The deployment of U.S. Special Operations forces is the most significant escalation of the American military campaign against ISIS to date.
The U.S. Special Operations forces will first be deployed to northern Syria to help coordinate local ground forces and U.S.-led coalition efforts to fight ISIS, the senior administration official said.
All that info sounds all too familiar to me and anyone else that has been privy to the history of Vietnam……
Here is something to think about…..we are sending in troops to help the rebels and Russia is attacking the rebel positions….what could go wrong there?
No more thing…these are troops we are sending not a pair of inanimate boots….call them what they are….American troops!
After hearing this news….all I could think or say was…….Here We Go Again!
This blog told you this would…..CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
