"Boots in the air" - Obama sends helicopter gunships to Iraq

The Nobel Prize Winner Goes To War

• Caesar Obama, on his own authority, is sending AH-64 Apache attack helicopters to Iraq in a major escalation of the war.
• News Flash  -  Cowardly Democrats and Republicans are hiding under their Congressional desks quivering in fear that someone might ask them to publically debate and vote on if we should go to war or not.

IRBIL, Iraq — The United States sent attack helicopters into combat against Islamic State targets west of Baghdad on Sunday, the first time low-flying Army aircraft have been committed to fighting in an engagement that the Obama administration has promised would not include “boots on the ground.”

The U.S. Central Command, in a statement about U.S. activities against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, provided few specifics about the helicopters. But they were likely AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, which were deployed to Baghdad International Airport in June to provide protection for U.S. military and diplomatic facilities.

Until Sunday, U.S. airstrikes in Iraq have been limited to fast-moving Air Force and Navy fighter aircraft and drones. But the use of the relatively slow-flying helicopters represents an escalation of American military involvement and is a sign that the security situation in Iraq’s Anbar province is deteriorating reports McClatchy News.

Boots in the Air.
And what happens when the "Boots in the air" are shot down and
the soldiers taken captive by Islamic State?

Last week, the Islamic State militants overran numerous Iraqi bases and towns and were becoming a widespread presence in Abu Ghraib, the last major town outside of Baghdad’s western suburbs.

Jeffrey White, a former senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst who closely follows developments in Iraq, said the use of helicopter gunships by the United States means that U.S. troops effectively are now directly involved in ground battles.

“It’s definitely boots in the air. This is combat, assuming U.S. Army guys were flying the helicopters,” said White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a center-right policy institute. “Using helicopter gunships in combat operations means those forces are in combat.”

Moreover, the Obama administration’s decision to authorize the use of U.S. helicopter gunships indicates that nearly two months of U.S.-led airstrikes by fixed-wing fighters and bombers have failed to stop the Islamic State from massing ground troops and launching offensive operations, he said.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/05/242220_us-helicopters-pressed-into-combat.html?sp=/99/200/111/&rh=1#storylink=cpy

The helicopters carry a two-man crew and with their missiles and powerful canon, increase the amount and accuracy of the firepower that the U.S. military can bring to bear against the Islamic State in support of Iraqi ground troops. But because helicopters fly relatively “low and slow,” the Obama administration is taking on greater risk in terms of exposing U.S. forces to casualties, White said.

“The Iraqi air force just lost a brand new Russian helicopter (to Islamic State ground fire). So it’s significantly higher risk for whoever is flying the mission,” said White. “It’s certainly crossing another threshold. The U.S. is conducting strikes that are directly involved in combat.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/10/05/242220_us-helicopters-pressed-into-combat.html?sp=/99/200/111/&rh=1#storylink=cpy

"The power to declare war, including the power of judging the causes of war, is fully and exclusively vested in the legislature."
.
James Madison
Founding Father of the United States