I guess the Left is comfortable with our quiet troop buildup in Iraq.

Refreshing: despite my earlier sardonic commentary about Democrats rolling over on this, I still wondered whether we’d have more progressives protesting over this. Or rioting. Guess even the most hardcore Lefty can detect a brick wall after he’s run into it six or seven times.

The United States has sent Apache attack helicopters to Iraq as part of the buildup in U.S. military personnel, the Pentagon said Tuesday.

Officials would not say how many of the armed helicopters have been sent to the country, stating only that they will be based in Baghdad and could assist with evacuations of American personnel.

…Yes, I suppose that they could. Or they could be there for airstrikes against the terrorist army that Barack Obama unaccountably just let set up shop again in Iraq. Continuing on…

The Pentagon also sent over additional surveillance drones.

President Obama on Monday sent 200 additional U.S. troops to Iraq to protect diplomatic facilities and personnel amid growing fears that Sunni militants in the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) could overrun the country. The order brought the total number of U.S. ground forces in Iraq to 750.

…Wasn’t it supposed to be capped at 300? Why, yes. Yes, it was.

Barack Obama announced on Thursday [June 19, 2014] that a contingent up to 300 “military advisers” will be sent to help Iraq’s beleaguered army repel the advance of Sunni insurgents, but insisted the US would not be dragged into another bloody war in the country.

It’s not even a month and we’re already seeing the mission being expanded. I wonder what our troop strength in Iraq will be by August. Of course, I also wonder if there’s still going to be an Iraq at that point…

(Image via Shutterstock)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Our troops should never have been fully pulled out, honestly. If we had left a reasonable residual force in the Once-and-Future-Kurdistan (where the locals like us, and have a keen appreciation of the advantages of being a favored regional client-state) the situation would be significantly different in Iraq right now. But never mind me: I’m just this guy on the Internet.