This isn't mission creep, it's mission lurch.

It's not even about trust. It's about watching the slow motion disaster.

I want to believe that Obama believes everything he says when he talks about this war. Whether this war campaign was planned from the start to be unrolled this way or it has actually "evolved" as it's played out is immaterial. Those of us raised early objections were right. This mission has creeped like hell and we're only a month and a half in.

Think about how the missions have changed. First, a few hundred troops were sent to Iraq to protect the embassy and consulate. Then, a few hundred more to advise the Iraqi Army. Then, we were sold an emergency action to stop a potential genocide. A true humanitarian mission. How could anyone not support that? We helped to liberate the mountain that was under siege. At that point, we were stopping genocide and protecting "American interests."

Then, we expanded. We started helping reclaim land, territory. We started bombing more areas, driving IS back. Now, two brutal murders later and our objective is to destroy IS. We have sent over 1,600 troops to Iraq and approved a down payment of $500 million to train a rebel army, with one of its objectives being taking on Assad. And, we will start bombing Syria, probably next week. And, this war will take "several years."

The language of our troop use has changed too. We used to say "no boots on the ground." That became "no combat troops on the ground." Then, "no US ground war." Yesterday, Obama said in his weekly address, "I won’t commit our troops to fighting another ground war in Iraq, or in Syria." That is worlds apart from "no boots on the ground," or "no combat troops."

It is clear that US troops will be soon embedded with Iraqi forces on the front line of battle. They will be combat ready and ordering strikes. The administration is clinging to the absurdity that because these troops aren't planning to fire guns offensively that this distinction matters.

And we'll have at least three more years of this "creeping."