Page 10 - Air Controllers News Today

Is id like to hear what it is. because it certainly isnt apparent now. >> peter bergen he did not mince any words. "there is no strategy." is he right? >> i think almost everything that senator mccain said in that statement is correct. i think, you know if we are serious, if the united states is serious about, for instance taking over -- taking back mosul, obviously that would be largely an iraqi army operation. but theres going to i think, have to be u.s. air controllers on the ground calling i...

Only the iraqis can do that. and in particular, in this case the sunni tribes to the west. if there comes a time when we need to change the kinds of support were giving to the iraqi forces well make that recommendation. but what happened at ramadi was a failure of the iraqi forces to fight. and so our efforts now are devoted to providing their ground forces with the equipment, the training and to try to encourage their will to fight so that our campaign enabling them can be successful both in de...

Youre hearing this criticism and we have been hearing it for weeks, really intensified this past week because of what happened in ramadi and palmyra, folks like senator john mccain who say they are going to need 10,000 u.s. troops on the ground to ensure that eyes is is defeated. take a listen to what some of what he had to say on face the nation today. >> we need to have forward air controllers. we need to have special forces. we need to of more of those kind of raids that were so successful in...

People want. americans, you know, are much more -- if you polled two years ago, a large majority of americans would have said, you know, we should not have boots on the ground. that has changed. but president obama is very firm on this point. we obviously do have boots on the ground with 3,000 fighters there. american soldiers, they all have boots, theyre on ground. but the rules of engagement prevent them from doing something that i think is necessary, if were -- if the united states and its al...

What question. >> first its not clear the american military defeated any of those people. >> thats right. thats the point. >> and im not talking about the american military defeating them. what id like to see is us equipping the sunnis, who are anti-isis, and giving air cover, to a lot of those people and even to the iran supported militias, which the administration is considering. i look at the number of air sorties, theyre very low. reason is we dont have forward air controllers. so where we d...

I look at the number of air sortties, theyre very low t. reason is we dont have forward air controllers. so where we dont want collateral damage, so were not bringing in airstrikes. >> just to be clear here, you are saying there is a place between the full lindsey graham which is like troops on the ground, actual reinvasion of iraq and what we are doing now, there is room to intensify what the u.s. is doing now with basically the people that are will? >> with the assets that are there. central c...

Setback. senator john mccain was very forceful in his disagreement of that characterization. >> imagine a number of american troops are not necessary, but american troops are necessary. do you know 75% of the combat missions that our airplanes go on return with their bomb loads? why is that? we dont have air controllers on the ground to identify targets that need to be taken out. >> reporter: he is saying the strategy as currently constructed isnt working. he called josh earnest a, quote, idiot....

Decision. and then stop fooling around. isis has controlled -- >> what can we do? >> centcom has been asking to have u.s. advisers forward air controllers and advisors forward with the iraqi national army units. maybe, maybe we dont know, but maybe if they were in ramadi they wouldnt have broken. >> why arent we doing it? >> risk. were risk averse. we dont want that american casualty. after all, weve left iraq. except for the 3,000 guys we still have there. >> were paying for a decade of war and...

The front with ford air controllers calling in air strikes. weve got 3,000 americans there. thats more than enough. our job is not to fight it on the ground but to help them fight it on the ground with intelligence air support and air cover. >> james comey said isis presents the most urgent threat to america than any others. do they have the capability of carrying out a large-scale attack here in the united states? >> we dont know. its at least possible. al qaeda is still around, too, particular...

Malky before we did anything. second i think hes right when it comes to boots on the ground they almost entirely have to be arab or kurd. but i think that they do need to at least revisit the rules of engagement for our troops. for the troops that we have there. i think that we need american guard air controllers and spotters for the aircraft attacks. i think we need more flexibility for the use of special forces. and i think we need to have embedded american trainers with the iraqi security for...