The US Department of Defense has learned nothing whatsoever in the battle to kill terror. Russia’s air forces doing the job of destroying Jihadists in Syria taught the coalition nothing. The failed proxy war in Syria and asymmetrical failures broadcast via YouTube did not even crack the thick headed policies of America’s war machine. Here is a new look at what I would call “designed strategic failure”.
How else can the arms industry depend on the United States to provide a revenue machine if not by a built in mechanism for never ending war? Since the start of the Vietnam conflict “winning” has never been in the equation for Pentagon planning. Never has this been more evident than since the so-called “War on Terror” exacted by the Bush administration, and taken to its apex of idiocy by Barack Obama. About a year ago this author suggested the Russian Ministry of Defense “televise” the destruction of ISIL’s money train, the black market oil shipped through Turkey from Syria and Kurdistan in northern Iraq. To the world’s surprise, the Russia air war hit YouTube like a laser targeted smart bomb. Central Command, the coalition that was supposed to be killing ISIL from the air, was left gob smacked, flat footed, looking like fools with bad targeting, worse.
Vladimir Putin came to the assistance of Syria’s President Assad and the people of Syria, and western mainstream media went crazy running interference for Obama and his allies in France, Britain, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other NATO and UN nations. Even in the face of verifiable proof the coalition was killing nothing but sand dunes, there was no course change. There was nothing learned except the fact the public is far too detached and confused. And in this BBC and the others take great advantage. Fast forward to Aleppo’s fall, and with the jihadists utterly disenfranchised the Pentagon still reports more sand dune blasting. Russia obliterates Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and ISIL, and the Obama administration pins medals on themselves. The DOD has to have officers with their heads down, shaking them and wondering; “Did I sign up for this?” America’s wars are now a circus act, a staged dance where the choreographers punish footloose flights of athleticism. If the US Air Force, Navy or Marines were Broadway stars, no one would be in the audience.
Look at this latest DOD report on operations by the coalition. I’ll share the Syria strikes with you and translate what the simple texts say:
“Near Raqqah, six strikes engaged an ISIL tactical unit; destroyed two tunnels, two fighting positions, a tactical vehicle and a front-end loader; and damaged three supply routes.”
Before I translate please recall the Senator John McCain just sponsored a bill that includes funding for capturing and “holding” Raggah. This town is on the dividing line of where Syria’s oil fields are, and a partitioning plan in effect to create a Kurdish state. But this is a deeper subject, let me reframe what the hundreds of billions of dollars in US taxpayer money is buying in this Middle East sink hole.
It took six air strikes to target and engage an “ISIL tactical unit”. This would probably be a small mobile unit by definition, maybe one of those Toyota pick-up trucks that became famous. The multimillion dollar aircraft flown by the world’s most highly trained warfighters also blew up two tunnels, two fox holes, another pickup truck, and a Farm All tractor with a bucket on the front. In addition, and without visual confirmation for the public at large, the world’s most expensive military command, the Pentagon reports three “supply routes” damaged! Looking at Google Earth and the area, I suppose these supply routes would be camel paths through one of the widest and most open desert on Earth. Sorry, but I speak the truth. Operation Inherent Resolve only resembles a modern military engagement of an enemy with its Hollywood inspired name. The only resoluteness we are witnessing is hog headed, stone brained bullshit on a stick. A resolute air force operation over this part of Syria could eradicate every living thing in said desert in days, not years. “Resolute” obviously means something different in Obama’s military. Don’t take my word, read the DOD’s bullshit on Inherent Resolve here.
My comrades who served in the US military are used to plain language, so I spare no military adjectives here in telling you how disgraceful the Obama administration’s proxy war is. According to the DOD’s own numbers, the U.S. alone has performed 13,549 strikes in Iraq and Syria (7,358 Iraq / 6,191 Syria), while the rest of the countries committed have flown 3,821 strikes (3,492 Iraq / 329 Syria). The counting and graphics used to illustrate the coalition’s “success” peak the recollective brain cells of Vietnam era person who reads. All the Pentagon and Obama needed to reenact a Saigon report is the interjection of “body bags” and “body counts”. A little “Agent Orange” and a Hollywood production of the sequel Apocalypse Now II and we’d be there. I’m half expecting a shaved headed Marlon Brando look alike to emerge in the role of “Moderate Jihadist” – slash former Green Beret Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. Yes, we are this far into “la-la land” folks.
The DoD says Americans are paying $12.5 million bucks a day to kill Syrian scorpions and to blow up raggedy ass men in full view of trillion dollar satellites. What a crock, what a clown show and a waste of human calories. All anyone in this world has to do to ferret out these truths is to watch the status reports these losers post on the coalition’s “successes”. I watched one with a Colonel Brett Sylvia, who is not only a veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan, but a Fellow at the United States Institute for Peace! This institute is the comical equivalent of “Be good or we will kill you” but let me move on. These people are PR hacks my fellow citizens, they take a common advisory moment and turn it into an advanced asymmetrical “advise and assist mission”. Do not take my word here, listen to this colonel describe how coalition forces used advanced systems and tactics to shoot down ISIL “quad-copters”. Don’t laugh yet, listen.
Giving credit to reporters from NBC and other networks here, the reporters are asking these military PR people the right questions, it’s the nebulous and often ridiculous answers that surely befuddle the “real news” process. I know most people have thought for months now that mainstream media must have absolutely no legitimate reporters on the Middle East scene, but this is clearly not true. The misdirect and misinformation the DoD and other official sources put out is the problem. Just consider the weight and numbers of these assertions. Against the piece of ISIL the Russians are not blowing to bits, military forces from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, Netherlands, the UK, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the UAE and the United States of America have supposedly engaged this rag-tag group of barbarians in the Levant. The coalition has flown 133,833 sorties in support of operations in Iraq and Syria, and the most progress achieved has been since Putin’s coalition crushed the Aleppo front. At least there are more fox holes and farm tractors hit by million dollar ordinance.
Colonel Sylvia is commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, Air Assault. I in no way want to besmirch his record, let alone his prestigious unit. In my experience these soldiers do their duty first, and ask questions last. The problem is their duty is not easy, their mission is deadlier because of having to do PR. I recall such missions during my time in service, the greater cause of shipmates and honor play a massive role. This notwithstanding bullshit orders and trumped up numbers contribute to the overall death toll in the end. The “WOMD” lie got millions killed, let’s remember. Part of the “mission” of the Obama military machine has been to roll “defense” into one big sugary ball for the industrialists and Cold Warriors. A good example is this blog post at DoD that pats Norway on the back for sending money and advisers to fight ISIL, while at the same time cheering them for making NATO up north stronger. This is systemic from Obama’s and key European’s penchant for rolling Russia, Iran, and the ISIL jihadists into one great big fearful enemy. Most reading this far will recognize this.
My original point is well made, but it’s important that the incoming president see this, and that he take steps to make the business of war more real and efficient. The waste, chaos and death associated with America’s police actions over the last half century is unbelievable when viewer pragmatically. Wars have been wages and never won, the Taliban roams Afghanistan still, Iraq is worse off without Saddam, Syria is destroyed, Libya a hell hole, and refugees clog Europe. A hundred trillion dollars has been spent in 40 years so that we could be right back where we started? Calling failure success, pretending Captain America will save us, and never being accountable has its consequences. President Donald Trump can start off on the right foot televising coalition airstrikes like the Russians did. The new president can get congress to agree to join forces with the Russians to eradicate jihadists. The differences between these great nations can be solved later, war is war. It’s high time the commander in chief assumes his role properly.
Phil Butler, is a policy investigator and analyst, a political scientist and expert on Eastern Europe, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.
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