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The War on ISIS Now Comes With Medals

The more medals the better, in the world of the Pentagon

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The thousands of U.S. troops the Obama administration has deployed to Iraq or Syria already get combat pay and are authorized to wear combat patches. Beginning Wednesday, they’re eligible for a new medal honoring the mission that the White House insists is absolutely, positively, not a combat one.

The thousands of U.S. troops the Obama administration has deployed to Iraq or Syria already get combat pay and are authorized to wear combat patches. Beginning Wednesday, they’re eligible for a new medal honoring the mission that the White House insists is absolutely, positively, not a combat one.

The administration says that anyone in uniform who has served in Iraq, Syria, “or contiguous waters or airspace on or after June 15, 2014” could receive the Inherent Resolve Campaign Medal for their service. The medal features a sword stabbing a scorpion — presumably a stand-in for the Islamic State — and the sword representing all of the U.S. troops that have been sent to the region to help fight the terror group.

U.S. military officials have repeatedly refused to say that U.S. troops are involved in combat, insisting their mission is to train and advise Iraqi forces.

This isn’t to say that a deployment to Iraq or Syria isn’t dangerous. Just the opposite. Two Americans have died in combat in Iraq in recent months: U.S. Army Master Sgt. Joshua L. Wheeler was killed during a Delta Force raid on an ISIS prison last October, and earlier this month, Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin was killed in northern Iraq by an ISIS rocket attack. And since August 2014, American airplanes have carried out over 8,500 airstrikes in Iraq and Syria.

As an added bonus, a statement from the White House on Wednesday stated that anyone who has been awarded a Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal may now exchange it for the Inherent Resolve medal.

Photo credit: Sgt. Cody Quinn, CJTF-OIR Public Affairs

Tag: Iraq

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