Page 7 - Air Controllers News Today

Trucks, but they also have more tars, and overwhelming forces coming in in the air. when youre talking about combines a-10s and f-15s with ground forces in a desert environment, you have a significant advantage over isis, which doesnt have those aircraft. >> reporter: the pentagon considering further expansion, including more special operations forces for raids in syria and iraq against isis leadership, more apache helicopter gunships for low-eight attitude attacks and possibly u.s. forward air ...

Kurdish forces are poorly equipped. the pentagon has yet to provide heavy weapons. but u.s. air support is moving in. >> they do have small arms and trucks, but they also have mortars. and they now have overwhelming forces coming in from the air. when youre talking about combining a-10s and f-15s with ground forces in a desert environment, you have a significant advantage over isis which doesnt have those aircraft. >> and the pentagon considering further expansion including more special operatio...

Their real strategy and how well keep us out of syria, keep us out of these conflicts or win them. >> lets begun by understanding there are no good choices in a region in which there are now four barely functioning states. yemen, syria, libya and iraq. now the president is being accused of, i think john mccains phrase, grudging incrementalism. thats probably true, but what is the choice at this point? liz says a caliphate has been established and we have to take the ground back. i dont know what...

This is not a law enforcement exercise. this is threat to our national security. if you think of it that way, you get much more aggressive. sadly under president obama twice he admitted we dont have a strategy to deal with isis of the we need one. and we can be successful. we have far more resources than i think what the obama administration pretends. we should be using them. this is the first priority for our country. jenna: what would be an example something we should be using we havent been u...

The "times" that he believes the operation most likely did not meet any of the criteria. yesterday, in testimony before the senate armed services committee, general campbell made no such admission, but did call the strike a mistake, and said the united states takes full responsibility. >> on saturday morning, our forces provided close air support to afghan forces at their request. to be clear, the decision to provide aerial fires was a u.s. decision, made within the u.s. chain of command. a hosp...

Clear that it was a mistake but the strike was called in by u.s. forces and therefore, u.s. forces have a responsibility and will through the investigation answer the questions here. >> nic, is there any more clarity about the chain of events that actually led up to this? >> reporter: doctors without borders have given some information which we didnt have before which gives some vital clues into the sequence of events. they say that the aircraft flew around over the hospital, large compound, sin...

Minutes. it could not have been a mistake. >> until were told otherwise, until we see an independent investigation, well presume that this was, in fact, a war crime. >> did this violate u.s. military rules? >> even though the afghans request that support, it still has to go through a rigorous u.s. procedure. >> there was no air controllers, american forward air controllers on the ground. >> we had a special operations unit that was in close vicinity that was talking to the aircraft to deliver th...

Forces and, therefore, u.s. forces have a responsibility and will through the investigation answer the questions here. >> nic, is there any more clarity about the chain of events that actually led up to this? >> reporter: doctors without borders have given some information which we didnt have before which gives some vital clues into the sequence of events. they say that the aircraft flew around over the hospital, a large compound, single building, was the only -- there was only one building in t...

Our operational authorities in rules of engagement. >> reporter: that order and acknowledgement that something went wrong. and the secretary of defense minced no words saying in a statement, when we make mistakes, we own up to them. thats exactly what we are doing now rules of engagement spell out when and how the u.s. military can conduct air strikes like the ac-130 gun ship that hit the hospital. doctors without borders says the u.s. knew it was a hospital. they were under attack for 30 minute...

Gasoline on the fire. joining me now is senator john mccain thank you for joining us. i want to get to syria in a moment i want to start with afghanistan. we learned yesterday that united states air strike badly damaged a hospital run by doctors without borders in the afghan city of kunduz killing 19 members of the staff and patients and injuring 37. you know, high commissioner for human rights say it might be criminal. were waiting for the details to come in. youre a former navy pilot. you ha...