• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

McCain says Obama's airstrikes on ISIL are meaningless

Iran Press TV

Sat Aug 9, 2014 2:7PM GMT

US President Barack Obama's authorization for limited airstrikes against ISIL targets in northern Iraq are "meaningless" and "worse than nothing," says Senator John McCain.

Senior US officials have indicated that Obama's Thursday authorization for the use of force in Iraq was only aimed at protecting US military and diplomatic personnel and perhaps helping the Iraqi fighters and refugees stranded on Mount Sinjar in northern Iraq.

As many as 40,000 Iraqis belonging to the Kurdish minority Yazidi are at risk of dying from dehydration and starvation atop the barren mountain as ISIL terrorists have vowed to kill them if they descended.

In an interview with The Daily Beast on Friday, McCain, one of Obama's fiercest foreign policy critics, accused the president of failing to devise a comprehensive strategy to stop ISIL advances across Iraq and Syria.

"This is a pinprick," McCain said about the US airstrike campaign in Iraq.

The first round of airstrikes was carried out early Friday during which America fighter jets dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece near Erbil in northern Iraq. The vehicles were approaching Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, were many US diplomatic and military personnel reside.

"It's almost worse than nothing because I fear the president is threatening and then he won't follow through," said the Arizona Republican. "It's the weakest possible response and we cannot allow [ISIL] to take Erbil. What [the administration has] done so far is almost meaningless."

McCain said that ISIL terrorists were using US weapons—including tanks, Humvees and advanced armored vehicles-- they seized during their plundering of Mosul to attack Erbil.

Last month, the US sent more than 800 special operations troops to Iraq, including a contingent now stationed in Erbil.

ISIL, which controls parts of Syria, sent its fighters into neighboring Iraq in June and quickly seized large swaths of territory straddling the border between the two countries.

The militants have terrorized entire communities, including Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis and others, as they continue their advances in Iraq.

HRJ/HRJ