President Barack Obama said he intends to double the number of American troops in Iraq from 1,500 to 3,000.

It is difficult to say why he made that decision. As a presidential candidate in 2008 Obama promised to end the war in Iraq, reversing President George W. Bush’s 2003 decision to invade on what turned out to be false premises. Iraq did not possess a weapons of mass destruction program and did not have ties to al-Qaida. Obama’s administration then followed Bush’s lead in concealing the fact that U.S. soldiers in Iraq had encountered decades-old chemical weapons stocks dating from the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Americans in general were delighted when nearly the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Iraq at the end of 2011. Some 1,500 were left behind to train Iraqi forces and introduce U.S. weapons systems sold to the Iraqi government.

Obama’s doubling of the U.S. forces there is questionable in its goals. The situation in Iraq pits numerous competing Iraqi forces against each other. These include ― in addition to the Islamic State, Iraqi Shiite and Sunni militias and Kurdish militias ― Iraqi government forces that U.S. troops will purportedly be training and remnants of al-Qaida-affiliated and tribal militias, plus armed elements that move back and forth from war-torn Syria, whose border with Iraq has now partly disappeared.

Why Obama would be increasing the number of U.S. troops on that chaotic battleground is hard to understand. If the reason is the threat from the Islamic State, let the people of Iraq and Syria who do not want to live under its rule dispose of it. The use of American troops to protect the interests of U.S. oil and other companies is unjustifiable. There isn’t any reason to believe that U.S. intervention can cause the Iraqi government to win out.

Congress needs to vote on an authorization for the use of military force and the $5.6 billion that Obama has requested for this new, third round of war in Iraq before the deployment of more troops proceeds. From here it looks like foolish, wasteful policy.

(Editorial, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

(MCT Information Services)