Sinful.

In the past year, the United States has increased the number of spy planes and other surveillance aircraft over Iraq and Syria, as well as the number of targeting specialists assigned to the mission. Hundreds more Special Operations forces are now on the ground in the two countries, sending back valuable information, as are thousands of Iraqi troops and Syrian militia members whom the Americans and their allies are training and advising.

“We do have a much better sense now for what this enemy looks like, how this enemy operates and how they’re structured,” said Col. Steve Warren, the military’s chief spokesman in Baghdad.

There was also intense pressure in the fall from President Obama and Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter* to accelerate the campaign, which is now costing $12 million a day.

Seriously, how can this be good for the environment?

Bulent Kilic/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The United States and its allies still drop most of their bombs — nine out of every 10 — on Islamic State fighters, weapons or other targets that pop up on the battlefield. The goal is not only to punish the Islamic State, but also to help Iraqi troops, who announced a push toward Falluja this week, and friendly Syrian militias battling the militants.  ...

The Pentagon estimates that the coalition’s land and air operations have reclaimed 45 percent of the territory the Islamic State seized in Iraq in 2014, and 20 percent of what it held in Syria.

I wonder what kind of Change we could make here at home, helping to avoid our own civil wars, if we freed up that $12 million a day, and retrained our bomber boys/fly boys into skilled tradesmen serving at home?

Apprenticeships in something other than bombing or killing.  They could always play video games for excitement, no?

Credit Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

 

“ISIL is suffering financially,” Daniel L. Glaser, a top Treasury official, said this month. “That said, they still have a considerable amount of money.”

IHS Conflict Monitor, a London-based organization that tracks terrorist financing, estimates that the group still earns about $56 million a month.

We're throwing good money after bad.
Of course, our soldiers do not intend to relocate. They don't seem too willing to fight to the death to claim Iraqi or Syrian soil. Their fighters will outlast us, so why drain the American treasury for nada?

Game Over, already.
Grow up, boys and learn some useful skills in LIFE?
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* Ash Carter, eh?  What an ass...

ADDED:

Scott F. Murray, a retired Air Force colonel and veteran of air campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo, who oversaw deliberate target development from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, said his team had prepared many valid financial and oil-related targets in early 2015. But senior commanders refused to approve them, fearing civilian casualties.

So the "brains" of these wars are operating out of South Carolina, eh?  And we thought George W. Bsuh was bad...  Good thing he's still got that black skin to fall back on, or some might be questioning the wisdom of Professor/President Obama, who does not seem to be eager to end these wars on his watch anytime soon...

Malia's off to Harvard,
maybe Sasha can enlist to ... (wait for it) serve her country?   I hear it pays well, killer good.

War is stupid...
These people are stupid...
Your guns mean nothing, in this whole world.

What your $12 million a day is buying:

The campaign has averaged about 15 strikes a day in Iraq and Syria since it started in August 2014, though that figure has gradually risen: There were 23 strikes a day in April.

In contrast, the NATO air war against Libya in 2011 involved about 50 strikes a day in its first two months. The air campaign in Afghanistan in 2001 averaged 85 daily airstrikes, and the campaign in Iraq in 2003 averaged about 800, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Pray for parity, people everywhere.
Because if it takes someone strong to stand up to bullies and bombs, we are in great need here at home.   Thinkers, not killers, will own the future. Same as it ever was.