Iraq war still not over: US political class silent as they put 5000 US soldiers in Iraq in 2016 and claim they're just "advisers." Latest killed there is Navy Seal who joined after 911-NY Daily News Editorial

5/5/16, "War by any other name: A SEAL's death shows US involvement in Iraq is more than just advisory," NY Daily New Editorial

"Navy SEAL Charlie Keating IV — an adviser to Kurdish troops in Mosul, Iraq — was killed Tuesday in an encounter with Islamic State militants.

Keating, 31, born and raised in Phoenix, was a track star at Indiana University before joining the Navy after 9/11.

NAVY SEAL KILLED WHILE TRYING TO RESCUE U.S. TROOPS FROM ISIS

Technically, Keating was not a combatant. He was an “adviser” who died in a firefight, rescuing other advisers under attack. Which is exactly as he should be remembered — as an American serviceman of high skill and valor, not because a grandfather of the same name had been a notable figure in the 1990s savings-and-loan crisis.

Petty Officer Keating was most decidedly his own man serving his country in an elite unit.

If most Americans thought we were “over” Iraq, guess again. In 2011, President Obama fulfilled a campaign pledge and wound down the Iraq War; the U.S departed, save 300 troops to train the Iraq military.

AMERICAN NAVY SEAL KILLED DURING COMBAT AGAINST ISIS IN IRAQ
 
But in 2014, with ISIS taking swaths of territory, Obama announced 300 troops would return to Iraq in as “advisers.”
That’s grown to 5,000 in 2016.

The Pentagon continues to say that these troops aren’t involved in a combat mission. Yet Keating’s is the third battlefield death of a U.S. serviceman in Iraq in the last seven months.

With one eye on his own exit from the White House, obviously President Obama doesn’t want to have a national conversation. But if our troops are dying from Islamic State fire, the public deserves to know the scope of the mission that took the lives of heroes like Charlie Keating IV."






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