American Elephants

When Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke to the Marines in San Diego, he described the ISIS army in Iraq as a threat unlike any the world has ever seen:

The Iraqi people, the government of Iraq, country of Iraq is now under threat from some of the most brutal, barbaric forces we’ve ever seen in the world today, and a force, ISIL [ISIS], and others that is an ideology that’s connected to an army and it’s a force and a dimension that the world has never seen before like we have seen it now.

He added that he had recommended to the president, and the president has authorized him to send about 130 new assessment team members up to northern Iraq in the Erbil area to take a closer look and ‘give a more in-depth assessment of where we can continue to help the Iraqis with what they’re doing and the threats that they are now dealing with.”

Erbil is a Kurdish city that has been under siege that “has been relieved somewhat by 19 U.S. air strikes over four days,” according to CBS.

Since they are just an “assessment team,” do they get to take their weapons? Or would that be too provocative?

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