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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: AmericaÂ’s battle against ISIS is really just a dangerous charade America’s battle against ISIS is really just a dangerous charade Posted by: Jon Dougherty May 29, 2015 Submit to reddit Share •Obama’s continued reluctance to employ U.S. military force when and where appropriate sends a dangerous signal to our allies and competitors alike: Commitments of American power come don’t really come with a commitment to use American power By Jon E. Dougherty U.S. military pilots are among the best in the world. What’s more, they are extremely conscientious about their role in defending the country and its national security interests. So it makes sense that they might become a little agitated when they are not used in a manner befitting their skill and mission. That should matter not only to the taxpayer footing the bill but to every American truly concerned about our national security. According to pilots assigned to fly sorties against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Pentagon has implemented overly bureaucratic rules of engagement and is engaged in obsessive micromanagement in a way that is preventing them from unleashing the full capabilities of American air power. That not only undermines their mission – protection of civilians and support for Iraqi government forces – but it further undermines U.S. credibility at a time when President Obama is increasingly viewed as feckless by our friends and enemies alike. As reported by Fox News: [Pilots] blame a bureaucracy that does not allow for quick decision-making. One Navy F-18 pilot who has flown missions against ISIS voiced his frustration to Fox News, saying: “There were times I had groups of ISIS fighters in my sights, but couldn’t get clearance to engage.” He added, “They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them. It was frustrating.” Other sources familiar with air operations in the ISIS theater said that strike missions often take just under an hour on average – from the time a pilot requests permission to strike an ISIS target and the weapon actually being sent to do its job. As you might expect, the “official” word from the Pentagon is denial. “We refute the idea that close air support strikes take ‘an hour on average.’ Depending on the how complex the target environment is, a strike could take place in less than 10 minutes or it could take much longer,” said a spokesman from U.S. Central Command, the command whose areas of responsibility include the Middle East and southwest Asia. “As our leaders have said, this is a long-term fight, and we will not alienate civilians, the Iraqi government or our coalition partners by striking targets indiscriminately,” the spokesman continued. Other military experts, however, refute the Pentagon’s refutation. One of them is Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, now retired, who led air campaigns over Iraq and Afghanistan. He, too, said pilots in the ISIS theater are being “micromanaged,” and that the process for ordering military strikes is so slow, sometimes, that the enemy has enough time to escape. “You’re talking about hours in some cases, which by that time the particular tactical target left the area and or the aircraft has run out of fuel. These are excessive procedures that are handing our adversary an advantage,” Deptula, a former director of the Combined Air Operations Center in Afghanistan in 2001, told Fox News. Deptula also contrasted the current air campaign against ISIS with past air campaigns. During the first Gulf War, he said, U.S.-led airstrikes averaged 1,125 sorties per day. During the Kosovo campaign in the 1990s, strikes averaged 135 per day. In 2003, during the infamous “shock and awe” campaign over Iraq there were an average of 800 sorties per day. Now, he says, in the fight against ISIS, U.S. military aircraft only carry out an average of 14 strikes per day – and U.S. aircraft are flying 80 percent of the sorties against ISIS, a pathetic and unacceptable statistic. But it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Deptula believes the bottleneck – or, more likely, the lack of will to carry out the mission – can be blamed on the president. “The ultimate guidance rests in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” he said. “We have been applying air power like a rain shower or a drizzle — for it to be effective, it needs to be applied like a thunderstorm.” Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, has been a nightmare for conservatives regarding domestic policy, but as head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he has at least been consistent in his quest to ensure that whenever military force is utilized, it is applied in its proper capacity. For his part, he has complained recently that as many as 75 percent of American sorties are returning to base without having dropped their ordnance. He wants special forces “forward air controllers” inside ISIS territory, who can get eyes on target and thereby ensure that strikes will be directed at enemy forces and not civilians. So far, however, the Obama administration has balked. Another former U.S. Air Force general agreed. “We need to get somebody to find the targets and [U.S.] airpower will blow them up … period,” said retired Gen. Charles F. Wald, former deputy commander of United States European Command. Obama’s continued reluctance to employ U.S. military force when and where appropriate sends a dangerous signal to our allies and competitors alike: Commitments of American power come don’t really come with a commitment to use American power. That kind of waffling makes us look weak and indecisive, and that emboldens our enemies. If Obama really isn’t serious about beating back ISIS, he should just call it a day and remove U.S. forces from the region. That would be a massive slap in the face to the scores of American military families directly and indirectly affected by the wars in Iraq over the past two decades, but at least then our enemies won’t get a daily reminder of just how pathetic our foreign policy has become under this president. Poster Comment: Do you know what the Crusaders said? The Knight told the King, "Sire, there are Christians in that town." The King said, "Kill them all, let God sort them out." LOL Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
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Yaup
______________________________________ Suspect all media / resist bad propaganda/Learn NLP everyday everyway ;) If you don't control your mind someone else will.
Stop right there. “The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.” ~ H. L. Mencken
OK. "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one." Edmund Burke
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