US military pilots complain hands tied in ‘frustrating’ fight against ISIS

[Suzanimal]

This whole article makes me sick.

US military pilots complain hands tied in ‘frustrating’ fight against ISIS

U.S. military pilots carrying out the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over what they say are heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets.

They 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."

Sources close to the air war against ISIS told Fox News that strike missions take, on average, just under an hour, from a pilot requesting permission to strike an ISIS target to a weapon leaving the wing.

A spokesman for the U.S. Air Force’s Central Command pushed back: “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.

"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."

A former U.S. Air Force general who led air campaigns over Iraq and Afghanistan also said today's pilots are being "micromanaged," and the process for ordering strikes is slow -- squandering valuable minutes and making it possible for the enemy 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,” said retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, a former director of the Combined Air Operations Center in Afghanistan in 2001.

Deptula also contrasted the current air campaign against ISIS with past air campaigns.

The U.S.-led airstrikes over Iraq during the first Gulf War averaged 1,125 strike sorties per day, according to Deptula. He said the Kosovo campaign averaged 135 strikes per day. In 2003, the famous “shock and awe” campaign over Iraq saw 800 strikes per day.

According to the U.S.-led coalition to defeat ISIS, U.S. military aircraft carry out 80 percent of the strikes against ISIS and average 14 per day.

Deptula blames the White House for the bottleneck.

“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-Ariz., recently complained that 75 percent of pilots are returning without dropping any ordnance, due to delays in decision-making up the chain of command.

A senior defense official at the Pentagon pushed back on the comparisons between the air war against ISIS and past air campaigns.

“The Gulf War and Kosovo are not reasonable comparisons. In those instances, we were fighting conventional forces. Today, we are supporting a fight against terrorists who blend into the civilian population,” he said. “Our threshold for civilian casualties and collateral damage is low. We don’t want to own this fight. We have reliable partners on the ground.”

McCain, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, also called for “forward air controllers,” as well as special forces and “more of those kind of raids that were so successful into Syria.”

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

In a letter to Secretary of Defense Ash Carter Wednesday, Rep. Duncan Hunter asked the secretary to consider arming the Sunnis tribes in Anbar directly in order to defeat ISIS. Like McCain, Hunter also wants to “immediately embed special operators and ground-air controllers to support ground operations against IS[IS].”

But a defense official pushed back on Hunter’s plan to bypass Baghdad and arm the Sunni tribes directly, telling Fox News, “[the plan] doesn’t take into account the presence of Iran inside Iraq right now… there could be unintended consequences and restore a sectarian war.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015...-against-isis/

[acptulsa]

So the armed forces don't condone friendly fire against our own troops. What else is new?

[AuH20]

ISIS deserves no mercy. Granted, it was the West that knowingly put them in power. Their behavior is Satanic.

http://shoebat.com/2015/05/27/muslim...different-men/

We heard about one girl who was traded 22 times, and another, who had escaped, told us that the sheikh who had captured her wrote his name on the back of her hand to show that she was his ‘property. …After attacking a village, IS splits women from men and executes boys and men aged 14 and over. The women and mothers are separated; girls are stripped naked, tested for virginity and examined for breast size and prettiness. The youngest, and those considered the prettiest virgins fetch higher prices and are sent to Raqqa, the IS stronghold

[surf]

ISIS deserves no mercy. Granted, it was the West that knowingly put them in power. Their behavior is Satanic.

http://shoebat.com/2015/05/27/muslim...different-men/

mercy or none, our business should only be to gtfo.

[enhanced_deficit]

Cuz risk of friendly fire extremely high?




While I'm still not convinced that Barack Hussein Obama secretly meets with them at family reunions like some GOP suggest, let's wait till all the facts are outed.


Maine GOP Senator suggests Pres. Obama will see ISIS at family reunion

No need to panic ; Former CIA deputy station chief discusses ISIS with Iraqi Sunni leaders

US-Led Airstrikes Directed against ISIS Kill 52 Syrian Civilians in a Day, Not A Single ISIS

[Slave Mentality]

ISIS deserves no mercy. Granted, it was the West that knowingly put them in power. Their behavior is Satanic.

http://shoebat.com/2015/05/27/muslim...different-men/

Remember the reports of the Iraqi army taking babies out of incubators and throwing them on the ground to die? Well, that was bull$#@!. Beware of war propaganda.

[tod evans]

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., recently complained that 75 percent of pilots are returning without dropping any ordnance, due to delays in decision-making up the chain of command.

Don't fret Johnny boy the "soldiers" here at home have no such problems.....

These fine warriors in blue just executed a suicidal guy in his bed..

[otherone]

“They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them.

"

terristseswut?

[willwash]

No duh! The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous. Its object is not victory, but to keep the structure of society intact.

Rolling back the ROE would allow the war to be won, leaving us with no more war to fight.

[Barrex]

How is it possible then that you are killing more civilians than terrorists? With all that delaying and confirming and decision making....

[Uriel999]

Remember the reports of the Iraqi army taking babies out of incubators and throwing them on the ground to die? Well, that was bull$#@!. Beware of war propaganda.

Slavery is very common over in the Mid East. I wouldn't be surprised it is true. However, it isn't like ISIS is doing anything the rest of arab society wouldn't.

[enhanced_deficit]

ISIS deserves no mercy. Granted, it was the West that knowingly put them in power. Their behavior is Satanic.

http://shoebat.com/2015/05/27/muslim...different-men/

Citing shoebat on isis double agents is sort of like citing Andrew Adler on Obama's Iran policy.. bias overload.

[paulbot24]

"It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head."

[twomp]

ISIS deserves no mercy. Granted, it was the West that knowingly put them in power. Their behavior is Satanic.

http://shoebat.com/2015/05/27/muslim...different-men/

Because the people we replace ISIS with will be much more humane right?

[anaconda]

Maybe pick a different profession than the U.S. Armed Imperial Forces? Stupid is as stupid does.

[anaconda]

This whole article makes me sick.

Why? I found it somewhat encouraging that there is some bureaucratic trepidation and bungling regarding killing people. And the ridiculous military tactics elucidated in the article further underscore why we should never be involved in these types of conflicts. If the tactics were endangering the pilots and aircraft, my opinion would be somewhat different. That would be a Korea or Vietnam scenario.

[anaconda]

LOL "They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them..." Does this pilot not see any irony here?

[paulbot24]

They didn't feel the micro-management in boot camp? A little slow on the uptake and trigger happy. Beautiful.

[devil21]

I'm gonna assume that people fully understand by now that 'ISIS' is just like Al Qaeda, an intelligence agency manufactured and controlled group of mercenaries whose job this go-round is to destabilize Syria for the removal of Assad and Syria's elected government on behalf of globalist corporate interests. Pilots aren't given authorization to fire because they'd be firing on intelligence agency controlled assets. They're free to fire on Syrian infrastructure, Syrian military and Syrian civilians but hands-off the 'ISIS'.

[juleswin]

Because the people we replace ISIS with will be much more humane right?

The $#@!? We are trying to replace the current people with ISIS/free Syrian army. The whole point behind the story is that we are secretly working with or enabling ISIS to take over.

This is not baby in incubator, ISIS proudly video tapes their atrocities and makes even worse threats themselves. They have an English magazine that talks about these things. It's one thing if there were trying to deny the allegations like Saddam and Gaddafi were doing.