From my response to the threads about Obama's announcement of 50 troops in Syria.

Here's why D2, caribny and Baseman are all wrong.

• Obama did not suddenly grow kahones. The Obama foreign policy towards the Middle East remains the same - minimize genocide and ethnic cleansing while allowing the peoples of the Middle East to sort themselves out following the overthrow of strong men since the Arab Spring of 2011. The US had special Ops forces around the Iraq/Syria border area - remember they still have about 2,500 troops in Iraq.
• The Special Ops forces attacked ISIS jails and freed prisoners a couple of weeks ago. So "boots" have always been on the ground in that area.

• The 50 Special Ops forces in Syria is in Kurdish territory and it is to help the air strikes with US ground intelligence; plus they will lend guidance. This is also to strengthen the Kurds abilities.
• The US is not embroiled in another Middle East war. And Obama has continued to keep US soldiers out of another war. This engagement is part of the diplomatic effort convened recently with John Kerry and the Iranians and Russians - both of whom do not mind Assad going. You need a strong hand to effect a political solution and with Russian escalation recently this is smart move by the Community organizer Obama.

You guys like t post stuff without proper information and without thinking. Your biases - Baseman against Obama; caribny against Obama and D2...well I don't know his beef other than to simply post.

Obama pulled US troops out of Iraq in 2011 because both the ruling Shiites (with close ties to Iran, whom we had sanctions against), and disaffected Sunnis wanted the US out. The Kurds had their own autonomous region and has excellent relations with the US and hosted them in their territory. After showing good faith in the Forces Agreement signed by Bush and calling for US pullout of troops in Iraq, Obama was able to get the Shiites to allow the 2,500 troops there. You see how the ISIS rampage last year and the nuclear agreement changed things for the key Shiite government in Iraq? Brilliant Obama!!!! Now ISIS has lost territory it took in 2014, lost troops, and their military hardware has been degraded. Heard from them recently taking large swaths of territory? They are on their heels.