fighter

Gee, why in the world would Barack Obama tie the hands of the American military in our effort to stop Islamist terrorists committing genocide? Weird.

Via Fox News.

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.”

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8 Comments | Leave a comment
  1. Maynard says:

    Obama sits in his ivory tower and watches the arc of history go by, secure in his superior knowledge that the yapping voices of dissent, or the screams of the beheaded, are miniscule details in the big picture that he alone can perceive.

    Peggy Noonan’s summary:

    There is an odd, magical-thinking element in the psychology of recent White Houses. It is now common for those within them to assume that history will declare their greatness down the road. They proceed as if this is automatic, guaranteed: They will leave someday, history will ponder their accomplishments and announce their genius.

    The assumption of history’s inevitable vindication is sharper in the current White House, due to general conceit—they really do think they possess a higher wisdom and play a deeper game—and the expectation that liberal historians will write the history.

    The illusion becomes a form of license. We don’t have to listen to critics, adversaries, worriers and warn-ers, we just have to force through our higher vision and let history say down the road we got it right.

    They make this assumption because they don’t know much about history—they really are people who saw the movie but didn’t read the book—and because historical vindication is what happened so spectacularly in the case of Ronald Reagan. So it will happen to them, too.

  2. dennisl59 says:

    So here’s my beef. If this or any other F-18 pilot is so morally outraged, frustrated and upset about the ROE and his(or her) chain of command, then he(or she) should immediately resign their commission, hold a press conference and tell the world. Just wondering why that will never happen.

    posted 5/27 1102pm Texas[Top Gun]Time

  3. Shifra says:

    So, it’s fine for Obama to order drone strikes that kill innocent civilians, but our military have their hands tied by “rules of engagement” ? Ok, got it…

  4. Dave says:

    This is nothing new for lib POTUS like Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Clinton. They all tied the hands of the Pentagon time and time again. I think its because the lib mentality wants to meddle in everything but has no gut to finish anything that requires a decision.

    • Alain41 says:

      George H. W. Bush didn’t finish Iraq and left Saddam in place. Can’t know that things would be better if he had deposed Saddam, but GWB likely wouldn’t have had to consider invading Iraq (or whatever its successor was) and ISIS wouldn’t have arisen today. Maybe ISIS would have risen under Billy Jeff, maybe GWB would never have been elected, maybe Arab non-spring would have come sooner and now be entrenched, maybe Bibi would have been defeated, maybe Iranian public uprising before 2009. Still can’t say that things would be better, but hard to see how leaving Saddam in place can be argued to have led to a stable more representative Middle East benefiting its citizens and the world.

  5. deaves1 says:

    Obama only wants to “manage ISIS” not kill them. Little white trucks will get the green light, jihadists on foot with weapons attacking a city or town will not. This mission of destroying little white trucks is coating the American taxpayer a fortune. Not to mention the wear and tear on the warriors and equipment. It’s embarrassing to put this Nation’s sons and daughters in harms way, than not let them fight the way they train. American has the most technologically advanced and power military in the world, yet we get pushed around like we’re some third world country. The budget cuts and forced downsizing of our Armed Forces is a deliberate act to weaken America to the point she can no longer defend herself, let alone consider a 2 front war.

  6. Kitten says:

    Can you imagine our warriors from the greatest generation fighting under these conditions? We’d all be speaking German right now.

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