This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6564

A Nation In Crisis

October 5, 2014

By William Mayer

September 23, 2014 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Yesterday evening President Obama pretended to go to war against ME "extremists" a term which he is unwilling to clarify.

The WH is claiming without much in the way of backing evidence that the few sorties that have been flown are evidence of a coalition encompassing 5 Arab nations.

This from the WSJ:

"Three of the five involved countries issued perfunctory, vague public statements about the strikes, none of which carried any mention of the target country of Syria or the U.S., which led the attacks. An unnamed official was quoted on Saudi state news agency as saying the kingdom's participation was to ‘support the moderate Syrian opposition' and ‘combat the deadly disease of terrorism.'" [source, Matt Bradley and Ahmed Al Omran, Arab States Remain Muted About Syria Strikes , WSJ]

So far it's been difficult to ascertain exactly what hardware was supplied by these Muslim countries for use in Obama's "Operation Pin-Prick."

As Israel's left-wing Haaretz reports:

"American planes took part in most of the attacks on Syria during the night. However, airplanes of the Jordanian, United Arab Emirates and probably Saudi air forces also participated in them. Qatar and Bahrain also took part in the strikes and provided logistic support via the American bases in their territory." [source, Barak Ravid, U.S. briefed Israel of intention to attack jihadi targets in Syria]

The above sounds like a WH press release suggesting the information hadn't really been nailed down with any degree of specificity at the time it was published.

Fox News, however, is specifying numbers:

"United Arab Emirates: Flew four F-16 jets, Saudi Arabia: Flew four F-15 jets, Jordan: Flew four F-16 jets, Bahrain: Flew two F-16 jets, Qatar: Flew French-made Mirage 2000 fighter jet, but did not drop ordnance." [source, Jennifer Griffin and Justin Fishel, Breakdown of military support from Arab allies in anti-ISIS strikes ]

From DOD:

"Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also participated in or supported the airstrikes against ISIL targets. All aircraft safely exited the strike areas." [source, U.S. CentCom Presser, U.S. Military, Partner Nations Conduct Airstrikes in Syria]

A DOD cleared declassified combat video seems to show a "successful" attack on what appears to be barren ground, though it might be a concentration of jihadists, surrounding structures didn't seem to sustain damage.

Regarding action in Iraq, DOD released the following battle assessment, "…destroyed two ISIL Humvees, an ISIL armed vehicle and an ISIL fighting position southwest of Kirkuk…"

Tough day at the office, huh?

Given President Obama's past record we continue to have questions regarding whether or not these U.S. built, apparently Arab manned fighters actually dropped any ordnance. In combined operations, which included the launching of 47 Tomahawk missiles, only 14 sorties were flown. To date 196 sorties have been flown since the campaign started. Military strategists suggest that real air warfare against the enemy should consist of 200 or more sorties, per day.

The carefully delimited nature of this attack and subsequent lack of any real war reportage, should give one pause. Is this war or very high stakes political theater? Is the provision of a few fighter jets from Muslim nations evidence of anything but a transparent gesture?

When the most powerful fighting force in the world issues press releases touting the destruction of "two ISIL Humvees," one must conclude that Mr. Obama isn't serious and that this effort is nothing but a silly charade, albeit one which places the lives of America's fighting men and women in jeopardy for crassly political purposes.

©2014 PipeLineNews.org LLC, William Mayer. All rights reserved.

http://www.pipelinenews.org/2014/sep/23/A-Nation-In-Crisis.html

This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/6564