Bill O’Reilly never actually served in the military – and he was one of the Iraq war cheerleaders - but that’s no reason to disregard his latest war strategy for Iraq. Just ask colleague – and fellow Iraq war cheerleader - Charles Krauthammer!
In his opening segment last night, O’Reilly announced:
Last night we called upon President Obama to begin bombing the Al Qaeda army. Today we see pictures of captured American armaments heading towards Syria - the Al Qaeda army taking them to that battlefield. Those arms were abandoned by the Iraqi army which is in disarray. Why on earth are those caravans not being bombed by U.S. planes? It’s flat desert out there!
The Al Qaeda army should have been punished from the air a long time ago. These savages are totally out of control. Yet, all President Obama has done thus far is order about 275 military people to protect American assets in Baghdad.
Now, no credible person wants to send mass U.S. troops into Iraq again. That would be foolish because Americans are not going to solve the sectarian violence that plagues that country. In fact, I don’t think anyone will ever solve that century’s old problem. But certainly - certainly using air power to diminish the terror army is feasible and necessary.
Let’s pause here and point out that O’Reilly avoided serving in the military when he had the chance by getting education deferments. Yet, he was not just a supporter of the Iraq war, he attacked those who disagreed, most notably by boycotting France for not supporting it.
O’Reilly’s foregoing words were by way of introduction to a discussion with Charles Krauthammer. We won’t fault Krauthammer for not serving because he has been a paraplegic since his first year of medical school. But he was another Iraq war cheerleader. Another Iraq war cheerleader who has not let his spectacular miscalculation prevent him from certainty about his current military “insights.” Krauthammer told O’Reilly:
I say that’s right. I mean, what we essentially have to do is, Obama has to produce overnight a mini version of what he declined to do in 2011 which is to leave behind a small residual force that could A, gather intelligence; B, help to direct planning on tactics; and C, carry out air support. Those are the three things we need to do. Those are the three things we would have been in a position to do for the last three years.
We weren’t and we can see the consequences. The liquidation of all the gains that we made at very high cost in the surge.
So what we have to do now is to quickly—the most important thing here Bill is that they need intelligence. Yes, they’re an open country but they’ve got to know where, they’ve got to know what speed they’re going, they’ve got to know when they left—they have to know what is on those transports.
So, General Jack Keane, who was one of the architects of the surge, reminds that we used to have tremendous intel in Baghdad. We got all the regional and local intelligence which he would hand over to the Iraqis. When we left in 2011, that screen went blank. We have to reactivate the screen, have spotters on the ground and then use air power.
You can watch these two political pundits playing war games below:
“ISIS “is not a branch of the al-Qaeda group . . . does not have an organizational relationship with it and [al-Qaeda] is not the group responsible for their actions,” al-Qaeda’s General Command said in a statement, marking the first time the leadership has formally repudiated an affiliate. The rejection means that al-Qaeda no longer has representation in Iraq, where ISIS originated and where it has rebounded in recent months from the setbacks inflicted by U.S. troops to pose a significant challenge to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s control over the country.”
And it’s ISIL/ISIS that’s sending US armaments into Syria – not Al Qaeda as BOR stated.
“Indeed, ISIS has secured so many US-made vehicles that they don’t even need them all on the Iraq side of their new Islamic state, and reports say they are sending a number of US-made tanks, trucks and Humvees into Syria, to be used by ISIS fighters on the Syrian front.”
Come on, BOR – if you’re going to act like some kind of authoritarian on the matter and pass out marching orders to the President of all people (eyeroll), how about you actually know who is doing what? Even the most the most uneducated person I know on the matter realizes that it’s not Al Qaeda that’s causing the current problem in Iraq. Geez, BOR, get with it or STFU.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/al-qaeda-disavows-any-ties-with-radical-islamist-isis-group-in-syria-iraq/2014/02/03/2c9afc3a-8cef-11e3-98ab-fe5228217bd1_story.html
http://news.antiwar.com/2014/06/17/isis-secures-us-made-weapons-ships-tanks-to-syria-front/
A side note. I know that Bildo constantly brays about his “war correspondent” history. In fact, he “covered” the Falklands war and the El Salvador revolution from the comfort of a luxury hotel suite in Buenos Aires.
“We won’t fault Krauthammer for not serving because he has been a paraplegic since his first year of medical school.”
True — but mark my words Ellen, if he wasn’t paralyzed for life by that diving accident he had when he was a medical student at Harvard, Herr Kraphammer would have GONE TOTALLY ALL OUT TO GET A DRAFT DEFERMENT just like his fellow “born on third base but thinks he hit a triple” blowhard Bully O’Lielly. Remember: ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY NO ONE gets into a prestigious medical school like Harvard with meeting AT LEAST TWO of the following requirements:
1. LOTS OF $$$$
2. STRAIGHT A’s (or near straight A’s)
3. THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS
’Nuff said.
Fox News and it’s crew of talking imbeciles will go to any length to bash Obama. Had Obama started bombing immediately, Fox News would howling about how that’s the wrong approach.
No matter what action Obama takes, he will be wrong in the eyes of Fox News.