They'll Be Wearing Sandals

Individual hovercraft were too expensive.

Barack Obama has authorized the doubling of US troop levels in Iraq for the war against Islamic State (Isis) militants, further straining his pledge against “boots on the ground”.

Obama ordered an additional 1,500 troops to Iraq on Friday to bolster the performance of Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting Isis in ground combat.

  The Guardian

To bolster their performance.

The training, the Pentagon said, is expected to last the better part of a year, raising questions about when the Iraqis will be able to wrest territory away from Isis.

As though that were really the goal or anybody but the soldiers themselves thinks it is.

Meanwhile, US warplanes will continue their near-daily bombardment of Isis targets from the air.

Which, apparently, is not getting the trick done.

(Aside: "Isis" targets?  I've noticed more than one news article printing ISIS as though it were the goddess and not the initials of an organization.)

 And, if you think the $5.6 billion additional asked from Congress, which they will no doubt approve, for sustaining air strikes and “associated logistics” is a waste of your money, you have good reason.

The money includes $1.6bn as a “train and equip fund” for Iraqi and Kurdish units to enable them to “go on the offensive”, said budget director Shaun Donovan.

Remind me again how much we spent to train Iraqi units to “go on the offensive” in our earlier fiasco, which we declared mission accomplished three years ago.

An additional $3.4bn will be used “to support ongoing operations” including military advisers, intelligence collection and ammunition. The rest would go to the State Department to support diplomacy and to provide aid to neighboring countries including Lebanon and Jordan.

Oh, swell. Just like Cambodia.