Page 18 - Air Controllers News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

To change the kinds of support we're giving to the iraqi forces we'll 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 defeating isil and keeping isil defeated in a sustained way. these things we need to -- >> they can sure understand you. you are not at forward air controllers on the ground? >> we have not made that recommendation. >> iraq...

Weather and its impact on those air strikes. more importantly, the shias and the iraqi army do not have the will to fight toe-to-toe with the sunnis and isis. >> we need to have a robust strategy. we need more troops on the ground. we need forward air controllers. we're just referring to air strikes. 75% of those combat missions return to base without having fired a weapon. it is because we don't have somebody on the ground who can identify a static moving target. >> after more than a decade of training and billions of dollars in u.s. taxpayer money, the iraqi military is an army on paper only...

>> reporter: the prosecuting is in the process of training some 5,000 syrian rebels to help fight isis and the assad regime. real weak link in this program is how to provide air cover once they return to the battlefield in syria. now president obama's made it very clear that he will not put american troops on the ground in syria, meaning no american forward air controllers or spotters to help guide u.s. jets. but turkish officials said today that they have reached an agreement in principle with the u.s. to provide air cover for these newly trained rebels, meaning either the white house has cha...

Mccain saying you are going to need 10,000 u.s. ground troops to beat back this isis threat to win the war against them. >> we need to have a robust strategy. we need more troops on the ground. more air controllers. just referring to air strikes. you know 75% of those combat missions return to base without having fired a weapon? because we don't have somebody on the ground who can identify a static moving target. >> reporter: you have people like him calling for more forces. that is not on the table. the idea of forward air controllers are continuing. that is not on the table, according to sec...

Again. global affairs analyst and contributor to "the daily beast." i want you to listen to what senator john mccain said earlier foed today. >> first to have the president recognize he was incorrect when he said we're not losing we need to have a robust strategy we need more troops on the ground we need air controllers. we're just referring to air strikes. do you know that 75% of those combat missions return to base without having fired a weapon? it's because we don't have somebody on the ground who can identify a static moving target. and we learned in -- you're going to be talking about the...