This page was last updated on November 19, 2015.
CHEERING THE AIR STRIKES?; Carl Davidson; Facebook; November 17, 2015.
You can learn more about BCR’s leftster management here. “Leftster” is the combination of leftist and gangster, inspired by the left-originated “bankster.”
Carl Davidson (KD): “CHEERING THE AIR STRIKES? Keep this in mind. Do you think ISIS or the USA is more likely to recruit from among the civilian survivors of families destroyed as ‘collateral damage.’ Obama is criticized when US planes return with their bombs still loaded, because they couldn’t get a target without ‘unacceptable levels’ of innocent deaths. Should he be damned or praised? Wars are largely fought and won, or lost, politically, more so than militarily, assuming that a conflict with a ‘country’ the size of Indiana with only 30,000 soldiers even deserves to be called a ‘war.’ And note that Bush’s invasion cost over 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths to prime the pump here. Reminds me of the warning, if all you have in your toolbox is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” The posting links to “Hundreds of civilians killed in US-led air strikes on Isis targets – report.”
Regarding planes returning “with their bombs still loaded,” KD chose to omit the reason why “they couldn’t get a target without ‘unacceptable levels’ of innocent deaths.” KD wants his followers to believe those who support attacks on ISIS are bloodthirsty warmongers who don’t care who the bombs kill as long as they aren’t Americans. Here’s an excerpt from a Forbes piece entitled “Why We Aren’t Bombing ISIS.”
“‘Seventy-five percent of the sorties that we’re currently running with our attack aircraft come back without dropping bombs, mostly because they cannot acquire the target or properly identify the target,’ said U.S. Army General (ret) Jack Keane in testimony before the U.S. Senate last week.
“That’s why White House and Pentagon briefers usually talk about the number of sorties, not the number of air strikes. The number of missions flown is four times larger than the number of bombing runs.
“Gen. Keane offered a straightforward solution. ‘Forward air controllers fix that problem,’ he said.
“Forward air controllers are specially trained to guide aircraft onto ground targets, often by radio or painting targets with lasers. They are on the front lines and often the difference between victory and defeat.”
According to a retired U.S. Navy helicopter pilot,
“U.S. airmen are essentially flying half-blind and, as a result, are returning to base with their bombs still in the bay. As long as the body politic or president or whoever is making decisions absolutely refuses to put American air controllers on ground, essentially pilots are flying with one eye closed. It’s almost impossible for pilots to designate between [Islamic State] fighters and coalition fighters.”
Even if it were true “Wars are largely fought and won, or lost, politically, more so than militarily,” among the obvious exceptions would be the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I & II, and the China Civil War. While politicians are involved at the end when a war is lost/won, it’s usually because at least one of the belligerents surrenders and/or recognizes his cause is lost and continuing the war is pointless.
I got a kick out of KD’s hammer-and-nail comment; he described himself. KD’s kneejerk, go-to response to just about any perceived problem in the U.S. is racism. I sometimes wonder if KD has a hotkey programmed to type “racism,” “skin color,” et cetera.
In Peace, Friendship, Community, Cooperation, and Solidarity. <g>
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