How to oppose returning to war in Iraq without coming out and saying so. (Army Chief)

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Spencer Ackerman ?@attackerman 23m
Or, if you prefer: how to oppose returning to war in Iraq without coming out & saying so: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/18/us-military-intelligence-iraq-air-strikes-isis …


US army chief: not enough intelligence to launch Iraq air strikes
Gen. Martin Dempsey indicates reluctance to re-enter Iraq in assessment that US would have trouble attacking Isis from the air

As Baghdad awaits Barack Obama's decision on air strikes against the jihadist army conquering much of Iraq, the senior US military officer suggested that the US still lacks sufficient intelligence to take action.

Army general Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told a Senate panel on Wednesday that "until we can clarify this intelligence picture" the US would have difficulty knowing who it would be attacking from the air, indicating military as well as political reluctance to any return to the skies above Iraq.

"It's not as easy as looking at an iPhone video of a convoy and then striking it," Dempsey told a Senate appropriations subcommittee as he and defense secretary Chuck Hagel focused far more on the limits of what the US can accomplish in Iraq than the possibilities. Both sounded far less urgent than Iraqi leaders.

Dempsey, who once commanded the training of the Iraqi military and police, cited the case of an Iraqi army facility in Mosul falling first to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and then to the Kurdish peshmerga quasi-army within a 36-hour timeframe, raising doubts about the ability of the US air force or navy aviators to sufficiently know who they would be striking by the time of their arrival.


read: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/18/us-military-intelligence-iraq-air-strikes-isis

Zeke Miller ?@ZekeJMiller 17m
Carney says the administration supports the repeal of the Iraq AUMF.