Boots on the ground: U.S. troops land on mountain where Yazidis are trapped

Once the United States decided to come to the aid of Iraqi Yazidis trapped atop a mountain and under seige by ISIS, it should have become clear that we couldn't just airdrop supplies to them and leave it at that. They're going to die if we don't find a way to get them off of there. And while that's not easy, it can be done, but most likely not without the direct involvement of U.S. ground troops.

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That's a problem for President Obama, of course (and his problems are paramount, don't you know) because he declared in no uncertain terms that no U.S. ground troops would enter Iraq. Well, they've entered, and they're probably not the last as we attempt to execute this complex operation. But even as he's dragged kicking and screaming into helping the Yazidis, Obama is still trying to find a way to do it while maintaining his no-ground-troops position. Get this:

The United States has not ruled out using American ground forces in an operation to extract the trapped civilians, but they will not engage in combat, the White House said. The U.S. team flew in darkness early in the morning to Mount Sinjar, where thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority fled to escape an advance by Islamic State fighters, the official said. "They were there last night and they did an assessment," the official said. A second U.S. official said fewer than 20 personnel were involved in the assessment of the situation and all had returned safely to the Kurdistan capital of Arbil by military air. A team of 130 U.S. military personnel is in Arbil, urgently drawing up options ranging from creating a safe corridor to an airlift to rescue those besieged on Mount Sinjar for over a week, most of them members of the Yazidi religious minority.

In other words, OK, OK, we'll send in ground troops, but they're not going to fight! Is that a fact? Because it seems to me it's entirely up to ISIS whether our guys are going to fight. If ISIS attacks, we engage in combat. I certainly hope the Pentagon has prepared them for combat, since they have to know it's a distinct possibility during the course of this plan's execution. But you never know. Maybe Obama feels he can't justify to his left-wing base a decision to prepare ground troops for combat, so the only politically plausible move is to send them in without sufficient weapons or preparation. This administration is such a disgrace.

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