It has become something of a ritual at this point: The Obama administration announces more United States troops are going to Iraq. We quibble over whether they’ll be in combat, and no candid answer is forthcoming. Orwellian word games ensue, and the public forgets about it as dozens or hundreds more U.S. soldiers are shipped off to join an unknown number of forces fighting an undeclared war with an undetermined goal and no end in sight.

The latest iteration of this dangerous cycle came Sept. 28, when Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced 615 more U.S. troops are headed to join the fight to retake Mosul, the last major Iraqi city controlled by the Islamic State. Predictably, Carter’s comments included a dose of the usual obfuscation that allows President Obama to continue pretending he ended the war in Iraq. American forces aren’t in “combat,” Carter says, but are “in harm’s way” experiencing “a lot of violence” while “combatting” the Islamic State.