[rktman]

Geez, how would have thunk it? Maybe we coulda used the $$$ someplace else. Oh, say a border barrier to keep OTM's out the country?

[Sgt_Schultze]

The junior varsity president once called ISIS the JV, so his administration can’t ever admit that ISIS is a problem - so they call it ISIL.

[DiogenesLamp]

The Staggering Cost Of A Largely Failed Fight Against ISIS

What does the affirmative action idiot care about costs? He is so stupid he thinks the government has an endless supply of money.

Before he was elected to the US Senate, his own finances were a horrible wreck, and were it not for the bribes and kickbacks he could get from his Senate Job, he would have collapsed financially and would have been evicted.

He would be a homeless nothing just as he so richly deserves to be. The man is a complete idiot.

[Vinnie]

Hey, just saw we have trained 60, yes sixty Iraqis to fight ISIS. We have the upper hand now. /s

[Zhang Fei]

Republican Sen. John McCain has criticized the campaign against Islamic State as too weak, noting that 75 percent of airstrike missions return without firing a weapon.

Seems a little disingenuous. That's like saying every infantry patrol must end in contact. They're not attacking fixed targets like airfields and bridges. They're patrolling more or less like ground troops, looking for targets of opportunity. And opportunity doesn't always materialize.

Troops on the ground (i.e. not trainers) come with costs. They have to be supplied and defended in an environment where the enemy controls 1/3 of the country, and the front lines are undefined. This was why the Iraqi occupation cost $50b a year, compared to the $3b the air campaign has cost so far. And US casualties would presumably rise to the hundreds per year that tanked the GOP's poll ratings.

[Arthur McGowan]

ISIS is doing exactly what the Bush/Clinton/Obama crime family intended: wiping out Christians in the Middle East. Europe and North America are next.

[Justa]

McCain is mis-representing the truth to pitch for more troops. His depiction of strike missions isn’t how they’re done and he’s asking for things already in use there.

What’s needed most is what he can’t ask for: removing Iraqi officials and distant US military officials from the strike authorization. This would do the most to eliminate “75% of missions returning to base with ordinance”. In most cases by the time a strike is approved the enemy has scooted. They are aware of the time lag between spotting and approval and limit their time in the open to this interval. This is one reason ISIS prefers cities because they can quickly hide in civilian infrastructure, amongst civilians.