The new "good war" in Iraq is being hobbled by the lack of UAVs currently deployed to Afghanistan:
[The] need for more "eyes in the sky" over Syria and Iraq is something that's preoccupying U.S. military planners and will likely be a major topic when senior coalition commanders gather next week in Washington.
Defence experts say a good chunk of the American military's surveillance capability is still tied up in Afghanistan, despite the urgency of the bombing campaign against ISIL.
Ponder that. We are being distracted from fighting in Iraq--the war that is "good" by definition since President Obama has begun it, right?--by the "bad" fight in Afghanistan.
Actually, there is no distraction (any more than Iraq distracted us from Afghanistan back when the "good" and "bad" labels were reversed). We have UAV assets in the Army that could be sent to Iraq:
News stories that the U.S. has insufficient aerial surveillance UAVs and aircraft over Iraq because most are tied up in Afghanistan ignores the fact that the U.S. Army has over 50 MQ-1Cs in divisional aviation brigades that could be sent. The army has manned electronic warfare and surveillance aircraft as well. Several NATO countries also have UAVs and manned aircraft they could send.
Since we sent elements of a division headquarters to Iraq recently, the command and control element for those drone assets is available to coordinate their use over a wide area, I should think.
It's all so confusing. I think I get the "change" part, but what's the "hope?"
