TerrorismU.S. ready to strike ISIS targets in Iraq, drops supplies to besieged refugees
Yesterday, President Obama authorized the U.S. military to attack ISIS targets in Iraq, at the same time that USAF transport planes began dropping food and other supply to help the 40,000 or so Iraqis who fled to the mountains in the last two days after ISIS militants took over four Christian-majority towns in north Iraq. Administration officials said on Thursday that the crisis on Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq had forced their hand, with tens of thousands of people sheltering in the bare mountains without food, water, or access to supplies.
The United States is about to operate militarily in Iraq again. Yesterday, President Obama authorized the U.S. military to attack ISIS targets in Iraq, at the same time that USAF transport planes began dropping food and other supply to help the 40,000 or so Iraqis who fled to the mountains in the last two days after ISIS militants took over four Christian-majority towns in north Iraq.
The president said he had directed the U.S. military forces to conduct targeted airstrikes on the militants if they moved to take Erbil, threatening the American citizens and military personnel there.
He added that at the request of the Iraqi government, he had authorized the military to use airstrikes to help provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi citizens, many of them religious minorities, who are trapped in the mountains, besieged by the Islamist ISIS.
“When we face a situation like we do on that mountain . . . when have mandate to help, and when we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, I believe the United States of America should not turn a blind eye,” Obama said.
“When we have the unique capabilities to help avert a massacre, then I think the United States of America cannot turn a blind eye,” Obama said. He also said, though, that he had run for the presidency in part to end America’s involvement in the Iraq war, and he repeated his promise that the United States would not send ground troops back to that country.
“I know many of you are concerned about any military action in Iraq, even limited strikes like these,” Obama said. “I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq,” he said. “American combat troops will not be returning to fight in Iraq.”
Obama said those stranded in the mountains were subject to “barbaric” treatment by ISIS and were threatened with a mass execution “which would constitute a genocide.”
The religious minorities, Obama said, were faced with the choice of: “Descend the mountain and be slaughtered, or stay and slowly die of thirst and hunger.”
While the United States “cannot and should not intervene” every time there is a crisis in the world, the president said, the current circumstances in Iraq — civilians facing the threat of mass violence, a request by the Iraqis for help, and the American capability to prevent slaughter — warrant action.
“Today, America is coming to help,” he said.
