Just Deny It

Deny.  So what if people know better?  Why not?  It's always been my mother's approach.  She's 84 and showing no signs of changing.

The problem for Kirby was that Obama has repeated the promise [of no boots on the ground in Syria] at least 16 times since 2013.

[...]

After reporters pointed out the mistake, Kirby tried to walk back his claim by defining the phrase “boots on the ground” to exclude special forces.

“When we talk about boots on the ground, in the context that you have heard people in the administration speak to, we are talking about conventional, large-scale ground troops,” said Kirby. “I’m not disputing the fact that we have troops on the ground, and they’re wearing boots.”

  The Intercept

You just have to redefine the terms. Well, not if you're my mother, but if you're the White House spokesman, at least to date, you do.

In Iraq, when a U.S. special forces soldier was killed during a raid on an ISIS-held prison, the White House insisted that U.S. forces were only flying helicopters carrying Kurdish commandos, and that it was a “unique circumstance.” They refused to call the exchange “combat,” prompting outrage from veterans groups.

A second American soldier was killed in a rocket attack in northern Iraq last month, while guarding a U.S. base near Mosul. The White House called it “an enemy action,” not “combat.”

[...]

The Obama administration has company in Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton. During a Democratic debate in February, Clinton said “we will not send American combat troops back to Syria or Iraq. That is off the table. But we do have special forces.”

I wonder if the special forces themselves feel like combat troops when they're being shot at. I bet they're carrying guns to shoot back.

Let me fix this reporting problem for the administration (and Hillary): relabel whole brigades "special forces".