WASHINGTON – Reinforcing criticism that the U.S. aerial campaign against ISIS is ineffective, the Pentagon revealed it has engaged 3,222 targets of the Islamic State, or ISIS, in Iraq and Syria.
The report, issued by U.S. CENTCOM, or U.S. Central Command, is current as of Jan. 7. Aerial bombing began in early August in Iraq and in September in Syria.
Many of the attacks on ISIS positions have been in support of the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraq military forces battling ISIS on the ground.
In Syria, many of the targets have been ISIS positions in and around Kobani, a Syrian Kurdish city that borders southern Turkey.
There has been criticism that the bombings are “pinpricks,” since they have been limited in number compared to previous campaigns, such as in Kosovo and in the Iraqi Gulf war.
Because the Obama administration has stated the U.S. will not commit boots on the ground, the aerial bombings have been of limited utility. In response, ISIS fighters quickly alter their tactics to blend in with the population to make targeting more difficult, if not impossible, without causing civilian casualties.
One of the most outspoken critics of the Obama administration’s tactics against ISIS has been retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Thomas McInerney.
He said the U.S. could defeat ISIS within 90 days if President Obama would use massive air power and ground forces.
McInerney said Obama is “setting up failure.”
“He’s doing these things that are tactical, but they don’t have a strategic endgame,” McInerney said.
The aerial attacks on ISIS positions amount to an average of only 22 a day.
In an interview in October, McInerney told WND that continued U.S. bombing is “not an air campaign.”
“People have got to understand these are hitting just three targets a day, maybe up to five,” he said. “We just are not using air power. Now, if we were doing 200, 500 or 1,000, like an air campaign is, then you would see significant results. This is not an air campaign. The Pentagon hasn’t even given it a name.”
McInerney said the limiting of attacks “all has to do with politics.”
“I don’t know exactly why except maybe the Democratic base does not want to see an aggressive air campaign,” he said. “It bewilders me, because I think it would help the president and the Democrats politically if they looked decisive.”
Most of the attacks in both countries, some 980 targets, have been aimed at buildings and barracks, followed by the bombing of 673 “fighting positions.”
U.S. and allied bombing attacks on ISIS positions in Iraq and Syria break down to a total of 58 tanks, 184 Humvees and 26 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected, or MRAP, vehicles, all of which ISIS apparently captured from the Iraqi military when it invaded Mosul and surrounding Iraqi cities in June.
In addition, aerial bombings to date have taken out 303 “technical vehicles” – presumably flatbed Toshiba trucks with a machine gun mounted in the rear – and 394 “other vehicles” which were not specified.
Also included were some 79 artillery and anti-aircraft guns and mortars, 41 staging areas and 11 improvised explosive device positions.
U.S. and allied aerial bombings in both countries also hit 16 command posts and command and control buildings, 92 checkpoints, 17 guard shacks, 259 oil infrastructures, 52 bunkers, 14 boats and 23 arms stockpiles and caches.
In August, McInerney called the Obama administration’s aerial bombing campaign of ISIS positions “three years behind.” He said the U.S. should go to DEFCON 1, “our highest state of readiness.”
He warned that it was only a matter of time before ISIS attacks targets in the U.S.
“I believe that we should go to DEFCON 1 and be prepared for another strike (like 9/11),” McInerney said. “I believe American cities will be attacked, and we should be prepared for it.”
His warning comes as France has gone on the highest state of alert against terrorist attacks as a result of the killing of 12 journalists of a French satirical magazine that published cartoons of the Muslim prophet Muhammad a few years ago.
Muslims worldwide rose up in violent demonstrations.
The attackers in Paris Wednesday, who claimed they had “avenged the prophet,” appeared to work with military precision.
They reportedly said they were from Al-Qaida in Yemen, where Al-Qaida in the Arab Peninsula, or AQAP, is headquartered.
U.S. and international security experts have become increasingly concerned that jihadist fighters in Iraq and Syria will return to their homeland and conduct such attacks.
