Special Ops to Obama: Let Us Fight ISIS, Already

Daily Beast ^ | Kimberly Dozier

[RoosterRedux]

Fighting simmering frustration in their ranks over ISIS advances in Iraq and Syria, top U.S. special operations commanders say they are building forces for a multi-generational fight—not a war that will be won in the next few years.

“We recognize this is a longterm prospect,” said Gen. Joseph Votel, the overall leader of U.S. Special Operations Command, in remarks to The Daily Beast during a special operations forum in Tampa. “We’re patient.”

“We talk about it being a 15-year struggle,” added Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, who heads the Air Force Special Operations Command, said describing the fight.

But many special operations officers and troops both in Tampa and Washington don’t want to wait that long to take the fight to ISIS. They were eager to talk about their aggravation over fighting by remote in Iraq and Syria: having to advise Iraqis, Kurdish Peshmerga, and rebel Syrian fighters from afar instead of joining them in battle.

“We are doing everything through cellphones… It’s hard to do much when you can’t go outside the wire,” said one special operator, using the military jargon for the perimeter of a base.

They blame the hands-off approach on an Obama administration unwilling to risk even small numbers of American lives in battle, burned by the fallout of the loss of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and intent on preserving the legacy of President Barack Obama’s troop drawdowns in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Vaquero]

ISIS stretched along a highway like the Iraqis did during the gulf war. We could have decimated them. Where were the planes? Crickets. They are the resident of the White Hut’s people. They are sacrosanct

[jsanders2001]

Because Obama doesn’t want you to hurt his friends and his staff’s family members

[elhombrelibre]

It sounds like the leaders would be content with smart guys doing a lot more analysis and without so much killing of ISIS. I'd suggest that's the problem and not the solution. The Marines who won the war in the Pacific in WWII probably were predominately not college graduates and probably knew their job was to kill the enemy, not to examine root causes. First you get order, then you can get to the study of root causes.

[knarf]

Dear Mr Military,

Sir,

Will you PLEASE ******' REVOLT and kick in the doors you KNOW need to be kicked in

I truly believe we will survive a military coup a lot more American than this scum-bag crap that's being handed to us today

signed;

A concerned citizen

[RoosterRedux]

Amen to that!

[Iron Munro]

To Obamatollah Obama ISIS is not the enemy - the US Military is the enemy.

[Travis McGee]

[Travis McGee]

The number of sorties is pathetic, a few percent of the sorties flown per day against Serbia in that conflict. And the ROE for the pilots are designed to ensure that ISIS vehicles escape unharmed. For example, an A-10 spots an ISIS convoy, and is ready to lay waste. The pilot must send the request up for a several HOUR process of judging the target from afar. By the time the permission is granted, the A-10 had to leave for fuel, and the convoy is gone. This is how Obama is intentionally hamstringing our warfighters.

Obama is a traitor. "The Taliban is inside the building."

[mcshot]

+10

[bert]

The line of which you speak is within the territory already ceded and is de facto no longer part of Iraq. Any current action will be to define boundaries and territory actually to be defended by the Shia.

The drone attacks in Syria are to damage command on behalf of the Sunni Arabs that will eliminate ISIS after the borders are established and things calm down. Egypt is that model.

As the commander in Tampa noted, it is going to take a while

[El Laton Caliente]

Amen