Surely, many readers are watching closely what is happening in northern Iraq where ISIL forces are running loose unopposed by anyone in the region other than the Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The Kurds are to be admired and complimented not only for their determination in fighting ISIL, but in providing sanctuary for those who are fleeing ISIL’s madmen. The Kurds have sheltered refugees from ISIL’s terrorists whether the refugees are moderate Sunnis, Shiites, Christians, Yazidis, etc. Is anyone else confused about the terminology of the terrorists in this action? First they were called ISIL, then ISIS, and now the “Islamic State.” Let’s just call them what they are: Evil.
The first link offers information about the limited US air strikes vs. ISIL’s terrorist army. The second link is a USA Today editorial that states Obama “was caught flat-footed by the rapid advance of Islamic State extremists.” That is correct. While Obama has authorized a few air strikes vs. ISIL, they are sporadic and inadequate at best. So far, I’ve only read or heard that the air strikes have destroyed some ISIL artillery, a couple mortar positions and some trucks. Excuse me. We are using US air strikes to target mere mortar positions and some trucks while allowing ISIL’s tank and armored columns to be untargeted? That sure is an odd and ineffective way to fight an opponent. The third link offers an opinion that the minimal air strikes being done by the USA are not likely to be very effective at stopping the ISIL advance (I agree). Thankfully, the USA is sending some badly-needed arms to the Kurds to help them fight ISIL and protect the hundreds of thousands of refugees they are sheltering (fourth link). Reportedly, even this minimal initial help has helped the Kurds recapture two towns from ISIL (fifth link).
Everyone needs to realize how evil ISIL/ISIS the Islamic State is. They have beheaded and crucified Christians and others. I’ve included some links about these atrocities in previous posts and you can find more information via a web search. I listened to a former military expert being interviewed on a cable news program last night that these terrorists are “pure evil.” He was correct. Today, I heard on a cable TV news program that a five year-old boy was cut in half by these terrorists because he was a Christian. Why is the world inert when such evil is on the march? Where is Turkey, a NATO nation? It does nothing. The sixth link indicates Turkey will continue to do nothing. Where is Saudi Arabia? It has done nothing. Where is Jordan? Even though ISIL has threatened to kill Jordan’s king and invade Jordan next, Jordan’s military (like Turkey’s and Saudi Arabia’s) have done…nothing. Are they all paralyzed with fear? The central government of Iraq is politically paralyzed, and is doing…nothing meaningful to stop ISIL. So far the Iraqi central government has done the most to strengthen ISIL because the Iraqi “army” flees ISIL at the first sign of combat and leaves all the advanced US weaponry behind for ISIL to seize and use. Why didn’t they at least drive all the tanks and armored vehicles back to Baghdad if they were going to retreat?
I hate to say ‘”I told you so,” but in December 2013, I warned in a post that an Al Qaeda army of terrorists was forming in Syria and that their threat would grow and endanger other nations in the Mideast (last link). It has happened. Too bad the White House, the US Defense Department and the State Department weren’t reading my blog last year. They would have had a “heads up” on what was obvious to even a mere layman like myself. Now the Obama administration is reacting in a very desultory manner to this army of evil that is on the loose in the Mideast. There is a biblical prophecy that comes to mind in watching the USA doing next to nothing about this advance of evil, and watching the rest of the world do nothing at all about it. Leviticus 26 is a prophecy about the future for the ancient Israelites who had entered a covenant with the Creator God to obey him. It outlined blessings that would befall their descendants if they obeyed God and curses that would befall them if they disobeyed. The ancient Israelites split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, and both nations collapsed and went into exile due to their sins in breaking their covenant with God. Their descendants are also bound by the blessings and curses pronounced in Leviticus 26. Their descendants include the USA and many of the European NATO nations, as my books, audio messages and articles document. When the USA and the western world was a dominantly-Christian bloc, they were ascendant and powerful in the world. The USA had the greatest military and economic power of any nation or empire ever seen on the earth at the end of World War II. The USA was then solidly Christian. It has steadily deteriorated into a nation that is rebelling against God’s ordained laws and natural order. As it has rebelled against God, it has steadily gone downhill. In Leviticus 26:19, one of the curses pronounced upon Israelites who disobeyed God’s laws was that God would “break the pride of [their] power.” That is happening in the modern world. Christians (and many others) are being persecuted, killed, thrown into exile, and even beheaded and crucified at times in Syria and Iraq. The historically Christian nations of Europe do…nothing. The predominately Christian USA does… almost nothing. It amazes me that the USA has the power to hurl back ISIL’s advance easily and perhaps even destroy it with a brief but intense bombing campaign, but is merely bombing a few trucks and a couple mortar positions so far.
At the risk of sounding like a Ronald Reagan fan (which I was and am), here is the kind of air war I’d have launched against ISIL/ISIS if I had been president of the USA. I’d have launched the first phase of the air war with no warning to ISIL/ISIS forces so they had no time to prepare for the attack or disperse their forces. I’d have attacked while their armored columns and fighters were all still packed together in columns. The first phase would have been B-52 and B-1 bombers dropping a “carpet bomb” attack on their advancing columns. That would have left their surviving forces in shock. The next phase would have been an attack by a squadron of A-10 “Warthog” attack planes which I’d have prepositioned in a friendly Kurdish airport along with their ground support crews. The A-10s would have hit the surviving ISIL/ISIS tanks minutes after the B-52s and B-1s had turned the terrorist army into a devastated mass of shocked survivors, and eliminated whatever was left. The A-10s are the world’s best airplanes for attacking armored columns. They are designed specifically for that task and they are very effective. I’d have sent an electronic jamming plane with the A-10’s in case the terrorist army had any functioning anti-aircraft capacities left to use against the A-10s. I’d have had the A-10s roam freely throughout northern Iraq taking out ISIL/ISIS armor and fighters wherever they could find them, utilizing the latest satellite intelligence to hit them quickly. [The A-10s are an excellent and needed asset but the Obama administration wants to retire them all. What on earth is he thinking?] I think one 24-hour period of such attacks would have ISIL/ISIS reeling and their adherents would be fleeing back to their villages and tribes in an attempt to survive. I’d have armed the Kurds with better weapons so they could have surged out of their mountainous region to fight ISIL/ISIS on the northern Iraqi plains with US close air support. I’d let the Kurds keep any functioning armor or weaponry that ISIL/ISIS fighters abandoned. Politically, the Kurds, the only real entity so far with the guts to fight ISIL/ISIS, need to be rewarded. Again, if I were the president of the USA, I’d suggest the Kurds declare an independent Kurdistan in the region they occupied and I’d have the US State Department announce that the USA was the first nation to recognize it as a political nation. I’d also sign an alliance agreement with the Kurds which would result in the Kurds receiving US weaponry and the US receiving the right to build a major airbase in Kurdistan. The Kurds have been faithful US allies for many years, and they deserve to be so recognized and rewarded. They could work out their borders with the Shiite region of the old Iraq in negotiations.
The above was what I would do if I were the president of the USA. Will it happen? No, it won’t, because the USA is led by people who have “lost the pride of the power” that God once gave us. We also have a US commander-in-chief who possibly couldn’t even properly sight-in the aiming system of a BB gun, much less understand how to apply and use real military power. His indecisive use of air power has given the enemy the chance to disperse their forces and make them harder to hit in fixed columns.
Remember years ago when the USA declared a “war on terrorism” when the terrorists were hidden and hard to locate? Well, we now have a large terrorist army operating openly in large formations and killing at will in a large portion of the Mideast. At a time when we could be hitting the terrorists hard and effectively with air strikes, the US government’s “war on terrorism” still focuses on having people take off their belts and shoes at airports. The “war on terrorism” has become a farce.
- http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/08/09/iraq-air-strikes-islamic-state/13824705/
- http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/08/08/isis-editorial/13782773/
- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/11/defense-official-us-airstrikes-unlikely-to-hurt-iraqi-militants-overall/
- http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140811/DEFREG04/308110008/Official-US-Shipping-Arms-Iraqi-Kurds
- http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/08/11/us-reportedly-sending-arms-to-iraq-kurds-in-battle-against-militants/
- http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/08/11/turkey-providing-kind-support-u-s-war-isil/
- http://stevenmcollins.com/?p=6700
