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Author Topic: U.S. focus is on boosting Iraqi forces, not air strikes  (Read 436 times)

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Offline EC

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U.S. focus is on boosting Iraqi forces, not air strikes
« on: June 12, 2014, 03:58:33 am »
(Reuters) - The White House signaled on Wednesday that it was looking to strengthen Iraqi forces to help them deal with an insurgency rather than to meet what one U.S. official said were past Iraqi requests for U.S. air strikes.

An Obama administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Iraq had previously made clear its interest in drone strikes or bombing by manned U.S. aircraft to help it beat back the militant onslaught.

Sunni rebels from an al Qaeda splinter group overran the Iraqi city of Tikrit on Wednesday and closed in on the biggest oil refinery in the country, making further gains in their rapid military advance against the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad. [ID:nL5N0OS24U]

The threat to the Baiji refinery came after militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL group, seized the northern city of Mosul, advancing their aim of creating a Sunni Caliphate straddling the border between Iraq and Syria.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/12/us-iraq-security-usa-idUSKBN0EN07Z20140612
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Offline Atomic Cow

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Re: U.S. focus is on boosting Iraqi forces, not air strikes
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2014, 04:04:36 am »
We have at least one carrier in the Gulf, and heavy bombers at Diego Garcia.  It is not that hard to drop some high yield hurt on the Islamists.
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Offline EC

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Re: U.S. focus is on boosting Iraqi forces, not air strikes
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2014, 04:09:20 am »
Optics. That's the problem.

No one has a "bad guys only" bomb. You'll inevitably wind up with colats, and every Muslim on the planet will blame the USA. Not the Iraqi government for requesting the strikes.
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Re: U.S. focus is on boosting Iraqi forces, not air strikes
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2014, 04:25:12 am »
The United States should of offered to hit Al Queda days ago when there was little momentum for Al-Queda. Now that momentum has evaporated. They have already taken key sectors of the country and Baghdad is the last city to fall. But just imagine all the American equipment Al-Queda has in their hands. From bullets to night vision goggles.Millions of dollars of American made equipment now in the hands of the enemy. The Iraqi security force has given up.

Quote

The insurgent fighters who routed the Iraqi army out of Mosul on Tuesday did not just capture much of Iraq’s second-largest city. They also gained a windfall of arms, munitions and equipment abandoned by the soldiers as they fled — arms that were supplied by the United States and intended to give the troops an edge over the insurgents.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/11/world/middleeast/mosul-iraq-militants-seize-us-weapons.html?_r=0
« Last Edit: June 12, 2014, 04:35:14 am by Trigger »
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