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Thursday, June 30, 2016

What Does The Big Raid Outside Fallujah Mean?

The White House announced today that American planes hit two groups of ISIS vehicles outside Fallujah and that about 250 ISIS soldiers were killed as a result.  The White House celebrated the event as a major victory.

But what does this raid really show?  American air power did destroy many ISIS vehicles and killed 250 ISIS soldiers.  That indeed is a major victory.  It is reminiscent of the crushing use of American air power in the Gulf War and in the invasion of Iraq that began the Iraq War.  The ISIS fighters had no chance once the full force of the US Air Force was unleashed on them.  But president Obama first authorized the use of American air power against ISIS roughly two years ago.  During all that time, this is the first major defeat inflicted on ISIS fighters with the use of overwhelming air power.  Why is that?  It cannot be that this is the first time that ISIS fighters were capable of being hit.  We've all seen the video of the ISIS convoys entering Fallujah or Ramadi or Mosul in Iraq.  Similar scenes played out all over Syria.  There were also ISIS convoys of oil tanker trucks that ISIS used to export and sell hundreds of millions of dollars of oil from Iraqi and Syrian fields.  Since America could easily have wiped out all of these ISIS convoys, why is it only now that a convoy has been hit in this way?

The answer to this question is quite revealing.  Until now, the American rules of engagement set by president Obama have actually prevented ISIS from being hit in a meaningful way.  Our president has restricted the world's strongest military from using its power to defeat the world's worst terrorist murderers.  Obama told us all that his goal is to destroy ISIS, but his actions demonstrated that he did not mean what he said.  It's only now when the ISIS terrorist attack in Orlando is hurting the Democrats politically that Obama is letting some major force be used against ISIS.  For once, the Air Force hit ISIS rather than worrying about what to call the enemy.

It may seem strange that a major victory is actually an indictment of Obama for gross incompetence, but that's exactly what it is.

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