I'm asking the question because it could have far-reaching consequences. The Russians have been sending jet fighters and maintenance personnel into Iraq since the end of June, over a month and a half ago:http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/wo...iraq.html?_r=0 and http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...-iraq-isis-overruns-country-article-1.1853208 Who is running air traffic control over Iraqi airspace today? There's also approximately 70 or 80 older jet fighters belonging to Iraq that have been held in Iran since the last war, which began in 2003, and it was reported that those are being refitted to participate in the air war But, what if jet aircraft start getting shot down by mistake, or worse, on purpose? What happens if American aircraft are fired on direcctly by Russian fighterplanes, or Iranian fighter planes, or, vice-versa?! Who's running this battle theater -- us, the Russians, the Iranians, or WHO? For ONCE, Obama had better be thinking about what he's doing this time, or things could really go straight to hell in a hurry! We're way beyond some "red-line" thing this time. Now we are already at WAR, if that's what we call it when we drop 500-pound bombs on an enemy.... Understand -- I'm not questioning the strict legality of what Obama did this time. Although he dithered for months before sending in the bombers, and although he deliberately waited until the Congressional recess so that, once again, he wouldn't need to use anything but his "pen and phone", I'm satisfied that this time, Obama did not break the War Powers Act (like he did in Libya in 2011). What I want to know is who is it that has overall control of the order of battle and responsibility for who-does-what in the skies over Iraq? Or, like so many other things, was this decision to start American aerial operations in Iraq just some poorly thought-out, half-assed gesture to improve his "popularity" numbers before Obama went off to vacation at Martha's Vineyard...?
A part of me hopes that an aircraft carrying a nuclear device "accidentally" drops it over Baghdad. And then another one. And then another one. Until its a piece of glass. For the love of god these people have been fighting each other forever.
Who knows? Obama wakes up one morning and decides to do something and he just does it. He doesn't need to talk it over with anybody. Probably the guys who plot the missions and the flight controllers on the aircraft carriers are taking care of "traffic control". They are probably in communication with the Russians and who ever else is active in Iraq. But that's just a guess. Yeah, there's danger of things going in the ditch, and if they do it could be pretty bad. That's what happens when you have one guy making all the decisions who has his mind on playing golf for two weeks.
Here's another thread that nobody gives a **** about. Good! I sincerely hope that nothing goes wrong over the skies of Iraq. I hope that. Even though this is NOT a time that inspires much hope. We have NO idea who is doing WHAT in the skies over Iraq, and all we can hope now is that ALL of them are aiming to destroy the ISIS Nazis and not each other. **** it! Bye!
