Posted on 05/26/2015 5:42:55 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
WASHINGTON — American intelligence analysts have identified seven buildings in downtown Raqqa in eastern Syria as the main headquarters of the Islamic State. But the buildings have gone untouched during the 10-month allied air campaign.
And just last week, convoys of heavily armed Islamic State fighters paraded triumphantly through the streets of the provincial capital Ramadi in western Iraq after forcing Iraqi troops to flee. They rolled on unscathed by coalition fighter-bombers.
American and allied warplanes are equipped with the most precise aerial arsenal ever fielded. But American officials say they are not striking significant — and obvious — Islamic State targets out of fear that the attacks will accidentally kill civilians.
Killing such innocents could hand the militants a major propaganda coup and alienate both the local Sunni tribesmen, whose support is critical to ousting the militants, and Sunni Arab countries that are part of the American-led coalition.
But many Iraqi commanders, and even some American officers, argue that exercising such prudence is harming the coalition’s larger effort to destroy the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or Daesh, and that it illustrates the limitations of American air power in the Obama administration’s strategy.
A persistent complaint of Iraqi officials and security officers is that the United States has been too cautious in its air campaign, frequently allowing columns of Islamic State fighters essentially free movement on the battlefield.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Different breed of Americans Today compared to WW11.
We dropped atomic bombs on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -Tom
The BS meter went on overload.
Civilians? There's no military, they're all friggin "civilians".
He’s playing a game. He keeps saying he wants new war powers from congress to go into Iraq. But if I remember correctly, he told Iraq...befoe ISIS and when Iraq first asked for help (after he pulled us out) to go to hell.
Today, we’d lose WWII with Obama at the helm.
Hold back to protect the civilians that ISIS WILL eventually kill
Another reason to try Obama for treason. Cowardice in the face of the enemy.
(With luck he'd negotiate for our 1787 borders.)
Just sitting here in the basement, wearing my PJs, and remembering those heroic videos of Serbian trains and buildings being blown up under US bombardment.
What loose lips you have NYT!!
I can’t recall observing such niceties against either the Japs or the Nazis, but perhaps I missed something?
Isn’t isis murdering most civilians????? Especially Christians.
LOL ISIS is civilians.
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