Page 8 - Air Controllers News Today

Withdraw. by the way, surprising this taliban attack in kunduz, because its in the northern part of the country where the taliban have never been as strong as they have been in other parts of the country. so its an element of surprise. they needed to have air controllers there and its one of the reasons why we hate wars, jake. >> all right, lets move on to syria. president obama saying on friday his administration is not going to make syria into a approximately war with russia. take a listen. >>...

Munitions used that struck the hospital. there are reports going back and forth with doctors without borders saying there was no taliban, no firing in the area, but afghan officials saying their people on the ground say they were under fire from taliban fighters at the hospital location. >> right. bob, to you. i want you to listen to what senator john mccain, what he said on state of the union this morning. >> if we had had a forward air controller it probably would not have happened. this is al...

Given the kwoecordinates. i dont think the united states is going to go public of where we got the coordinates. >> i agree with bob. there were probably no forward air controllers but there are reports that there were u.s. special operations forces with the afghan commandos who were under fire and called in the strikes. it could have been something as little as tragic as confusing the do not strike area. >> thank you again. we will continue to follow this as more information comes out. up next, ...

>> is he right? could forward air controllers have prevented this? >> senator will caca senator mc the pilots dont know. its a fast-moving battle. they are given a target and hit it. there is no second checking against satellite photography. the only way to overcome this is when you have americans on the ground with binoculars who say dont touch that target. its a hospital. >> if msf wants it will prosecute here. what is the process for prosecuting the united states in a case like this? >> we ha...

Kurds, get some forward air controllers at work there, build up the free syrian army again. its not too late. this flood of refugees is a direct result of our failed policy. it was a year ago the president said our goal was to grade and destroy isis. we have made no progress there. and of course, we now see vladimir putin inserting himself into the middle east in a way that russia has not been since they threw the russians out in 1973, hes maintaining his base and now dictating the pace of event...

Paul wolfowitz earlier today, and he was saying expect millions more to come and deal with the same problem. what do we do? >> well, we have to have a strategy and we have to implement it and very frankly its going to require some more american boots on the ground. not like we did during the surge but some air controllers, some intel, special forces. we had a hearing today, neil, i dont know if you have heard about it or not, where we had the general in charge of central command and a witness fr...

Troops on the ground have more leew leeway. is that a good idea? >> they are suggesting we do tit for tat with the iraqi government. they are more able to go after the enmy. we will, in fact, consider putting more troops on the ground and putting terminal air controllers forward to control the operations. thats not something you want to do unless you are sure the iraqi army is going to fight for themselves. thats something of consideration as a course of action in the future. >> iraqis have to g...

Here, a lot of folks probably dont have a big stomach for putting a lot of americans on the ground. how many are you thinking about under your plan? >> its a combination of, again, funding the indigenous forces there, the iraqi, kurds, jordanians as well as providing additional boots on the ground, number one to help coordinate the activities. more air strikes, a lot more air strikes that need to be done to soften up the isis positions. and, if necessary, to provide some boots on the ground to s...

Provide a rescue? >> well, we -- ien wot go that far, we do already have troops on the ground in iraq, i think its important to remember that. >> and weve seen some operations in specific cases in syria. >> but if were going to get serious about stopping the islamic state, were going to have to listen to our commanders who tell us, we need more specialized skilled soldiers on the ground like joint air controllers who help multiply the impact of our air strikes or special operations forces on the...

And the air strikes were doing right now are flaccid in terms of what needs to be done. third, immediately put u.s. advisors and air controllers on the ground with iraqi forces to include the forces and then facilitate his national salvation force plan for arming the kurds and his forces with egyptian saudi jordanian and ua support. they can do it. they claimed, in his words, your enemy is our enemy and were not asking you to fight for us. well do the fighting, you just need to help us. >> again...