The re-writtig of history involved in the Al-Zarqawi defeat in Iraq ( his network was defeated - not just him personally ) and the suggestion that he was killed by a drone is not only false, it is a totally misleading and false narrative of what has worked in the past against organizations such as al_Qaeda in Iraq ( AQI ) and ISIL to make the Obama administration's current effort seem reasonable.John wrote:Once again, al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) was created by Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. As I wrote in 2007 in "Iraqi Sunnis are turning against al-Qaeda in Iraq", al-Zarqawi was unable to find Iraqis who were willing to be suicide bombers, or shed blood in any way, so he had to bring in Jordanian and Saudi terrorists from abroad. Al-Zarqawi was killed by an American drone strike in 2006, and AQI was completely driven out of Iraq in 2007 by Iraqi Sunnis in the "Anbar Awakening," with the help of President George Bush's "surge."
Al-Zarqawi's network was defeated by U.S. boots on the ground picking up low level members of the Zarqawi network as well as the friends, neighbors, landlords. and business associates of those low level members for interrogation to gain intelligence.
In the end a series of safe houses were identified in al-Qaeda friendly neighborhoods of Iraq and those safe houses were all watched by concealed U.S. special forces ( U.S. boots on the ground in unfriendly territory ). When it was observed that known Al-Zarqawi aides and advisers were meeting in one of the safe houses U.S. special forces used laser designators to bring in the first unplanned, surprise, F16 air strike with a 500 pound high explosive bomb. After the exact location of the target had been identified during the first air strike with a laser designator by the special forces, a second air strike using a precision GPS guidance system was completed on the same GPS location identified in the first strike. The second air strike followed the first by just a few minutes using another 500 pound high explosive bomb intended to kill any initial survivors of the first air strike ( using the over pressure effect of high explosives on living people who are no longer protected by a building). Even after the two F16 airstrikes al-Zarqawi remained alive and had been loaded into an Iraqi ambulance and was bound for an Iraqi hospital when U.S. special forces arrived on the scene and detained both the ambulance and al-Zarqawi - the exact cause of al-Zarqawi's death remains in dispute, but the official U.S. government story is he died of injuries sustained in the second air strike by the high explosive effect from a 500 pound high explosive bomb dropped from an F16.
Camera footage from the cameras of the F16s immediately before, and after, the first air strike, and U.S. special forces survelance pictures of the building before the first air strike are available on line from media sources. After the first air stike the building is concealed by floating dust and debris suspended in the air, necessitating the use of GPS guidance for the second air strike.
Subsequent to Al-Zarqwai's death, the vast majority of all senior members of the Al-Zarqawi's network went to ground in the other safe houses and were killed, or captured, in a single wave of coordinated attacks by U.S. ground forces on all those safe houses. The resulting fire fights were intense but one sided as a result of precision air strikes available immediately upon on request by the U.S. attacking ground forces.
The suggestion that al-Zarqawi, and more importantly his network, was destroyed by a drone strike, as opposed to U.S. boots on the ground, is simply propaganda that the Obama administration uses to justify not fighting ISIL in a manner that might actually work.
In the current war, it is ISIL, not the U.S. that is using precision guided, long range, high explosive artillery ( in the form of truck bombs driven in from Syria ) to bring down buildings on the Iraqi Army's Kurdish special forces units ( the part of the Iraqi Army ) that were holding back an ISIL advance in the city of Ramadi. Kurdish intelligence officials have reported the U.S. was aware that these truck bombs were being built in Syria and were being convoyed through ISIL controlled Iraqi territory to Ramadi - but the U.S. officials refused to attack the conveys from the air without a formal request from the Shia led Iraqi government in Baghdad - a refusal that resulted in the destruction of some of the most well trained and effective Iraqi army units ( that just happened to be Kurdish led and Kurdish manned but were fighting as part of the Iraqi army in Ramdi ), and also resulting in the subsequent panicked retreat of the Shia regular army units from Ramadi.
Obama is arming, supporting, and reinforcing the effective fighting forces of our enemies ( the Iran allied, and Iran led, Shia militias who are our enemies ) and Obama is refusing to directly arm, support and reinforce the effective fighting forces of our allies ( Kurdish led, and Kurdish manned special forces units of the Iraqi army, and the Kurdish and Sunni, anti-ISIL, militias ).
It is a sound military principal to arm, support and reinforce units that are effective, just not the effective units of your enemies while starving and abandoning the effective units of your allies ( Kurdish led special forces of the Iraqi army and the Kurdish and Sunni militias that are being destroyed and restrained in the fight against ISIL due to the lack of arms, support and reinforcement from the United States ).
The Obama administration has announced that advanced U.S. anti-tank missiles are being rushed to the the Shia led Iraqi government, to be distributed by the Shia lead government to the Iran allied Shia militia's, and not distributed to the Kuridish Iraqi army special forces units that needed the weapons in Ramadi to defend themselves against truck bombs, and not being distributed to the Kurdish militias, and not being distributed to the Sunni militias allied to the U.S. and the Iraqi government in the fight against ISIL. Obama is refusing to directly arm the three U.S. allied, effective, anti-ISIL fighting units in Iraq and instead is allowing the Shia Government officials in Iraq to channel advanced U.S. weapons to the anti-U.S. and anit-ISIL Shia militias in Iraq.