Author: Gordon Duff

http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/14/how-john-mccain-crippled-obama-s-war-on-isis/

How John McCain Crippled Obama’s War on ISIS

Column: Politics

Region: Middle East

A story leaked out of Washington credits Senator John McCain, empowered by America’s corrupt congress to oversee Pentagon programs, with derailing the Obama administration’s “coalition bombing campaign” in Syria and Iraq. McCain and key right wing extremists, working in concert with Turkish, Israeli and Saudi intelligence, have placed a “political shield” over terrorist targets in Iraq and Syria, something that has frustrated American pilots, silenced by the threat of imprisonment or worse.

Reports from pilots and sources up and down the Pentagon chain of command tell an interesting story. Considering America’s years of experience at “precision bombing” and the vast intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities of the world’s largest military, America’s utter failure in curtailing ISIS and her dozens of “sister organizations” has been inexplicable.

American pilots flying over Iraq and Syria have quietly leaked their story for over a year now but no news agency will carry it. They say they have flown over oil tanker convoys 4 lanes wide at times and been told to stay silent.

They report mysterious aircraft dropping supplies to ISIS and al Nusra, they are silenced on that as well.

The most common report, however, is massive parking lots filled with hundreds, even thousands of Humvees, Abrams tanks, artillery pieces, support vehicles of all kinds, all “hands off” at the orders of the Pentagon.

In previous bombing campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, American pilots and drone operators admittedly suffered “collateral damage” at levels from 50% to almost 90% by some estimates. This could be the reason the US has somehow ordered pilots, both “cockpit” and “deskbound drone,” to “stand down” when they find juicy targets of opportunity.

They say it isn’t, that many of these targets are totally in the open or “well worth the risk.” In fact some pilots are totally dispirited from seeing the same “fat targets” over and over while they are sent after road checkpoints or abandoned buildings.

McCain, chairman of the powerful Senator Armed Services Committee, has strangled America’s efforts to the point where there are no sufficient munitions available. America is flying operations over Syria and Iraq with the aging F 16 recently upgraded for improved all weather capability using typical payloads of World War II era iron bombs.

Note that John McCain’s personal trips to Syria, meeting with the heads of ISIS and al Nusra, deeply parallel his earlier actions in Vietnam when as a prisoner of war McCain trained North Vietnamese air defense forces to shoot down American planes and made dozens of anti-American propaganda broadcasts.

McCain was pardoned by President Nixon when facing court martial and his records sealed and “whitewashed” by the press.

Crippled Operations

America is beholding to Turkey for the use of an airbase for operations in Syria and Iraq, bombing runs that restrict loiter time and can require air refueling as America’s aircraft carriers are now being kept in port with rare forays into the Pacific or Indian Ocean, all on McCain’s orders.

Even America’s huge airbase in Qatar, home to the B1B and B52 fleet of heavy bombers, seen over Kobani, is now “frozen” and “off limits” for anti-ISIS operations.

Making the Case

Taking the anonymous statements of half a dozen pilots and extrapolating a pattern requires support, both direct and anecdotal. Below we list some factors used:

• Traditionally, the US reports some collateral damage while foreign press is more forthcoming. However, there are almost no reports of collateral damage by US planes with the exception of assertions by Russia and Syria that coalition planes are actually actively flying air support for ISIS and al Nusra operations, bombing power stations and “accidentally” hitting Syrian Army units involved in critical operations.
• US capability, advanced weapons and targeting capability, when combined with the available aircraft in the US inventory at over 1000, should have made all movement and resupply in both Iraq and Syria through use of “kill zones” and impossibility within two weeks. A year later and ISIS heavy armour convoys are as safe on Iraq roads as though they were snug at home in their mother’s arms.
• Failure to bring America’s A10 “Warthog” squadrons to Iraq, the only planes America has in its inventory capable of obliterating oil convoys and other ISIS assets, is more than curious, it is criminal.
• That Russia, within weeks, was able to destroy hundreds of “fat targets,” command centers, fuel and ammunition depots, equipment storage facilities and training camps, most of which had been “up and running” through the entire coalition bombing campaign but untouched, speaks volumes as to the truth of reports by American pilots of “hands off” orders.
• America’s refusal to share targeting data with Russia may well be more than simply politics. Sharing this date would reveal patterns of deception and misdirection that would, we believe, inexorably lead to exposure of the American led bombing program as a sham.

The political issue that few outside Washington can understand is how an American politician like McCain, whose “long game” could be anything, treason, personal gain or “he knows something we don’t,” can govern or even overrule the White House.

That answer is not simple, that American military commanders are inherently, and we are saying a majority, deceptive, disloyal and conspiratorial. Since Obama was elected, Washington has been deluged with rumors of a military coup against the government. Literally thousands of military officers have been “cashiered” for misconduct of all kinds, sexual, gambling or incompetence, with the real underlying reason being treason.

For decades, AIPAC, the Israeli lobby in Washington, was believed to control congress, the press and the American military. In recent months, however, it has become clear that AIPAC has always acted in concert with Turkish intelligence services and the powerful Saudi lobby.

As al Qaeda has moved from “terror group” to “loyal American ally,” pulling a decade of conspiracy theorists into the mainstream, the exposure of the Israeli, Turkish, Saudi alliance with the American right and their love affair with ISIS is also coming into focus.

With that, with the right and all that cash, all that influence and the bizarre and unfathomable Mr. McCain, more is coming into focus as well, how America’s Air Force may actually be ISIS’ air force.

Another explanation would be welcome but thus far is not supportable by facts.

Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran of the Vietnam War that has worked on veterans and POW issues for decades and consulted with governments challenged by security issues. He’s a senior editor and chairman of the board of Veterans Today, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.