America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History (77 page)

 42.
Greg Miller, “Plan for Hunting Terrorists Signals U.S. Intends to Keep Adding Names to Kill Lists,”
The Washington Post
(October 23, 2012).

 43.
“CIA Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004–Present,”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
(June 2015).

 44.
On the unpopularity of U.S. drone operations among Pakistanis, see the polling data at
Pew Research Center Global Attitudes and Trends,
pewglobal.org/question-search/?qid=225&cntIDs=&stdIDs=
,
accessed June 19, 2015.

 45.
“U.S. Strikes in Yemen, 2002 to Present,”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
(June 2015).

 46.
“U.S. Strikes in Somalia, 2007–Present,”
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism
(June 2015). For even more detail on Obama era drone operations, see “The Drone Papers,”
The Intercept
(n.d. [October 2015]),
theintercept.com/drone-papers/
, accessed October 29, 2015.

 47.
James Kitfield, “5 Takeaways from the U.S. Special Ops Raids in Somalia and Libya,”
Defense One
(October 8, 2013).

 48.
Murtaza Husain, “Retired General: Drones Create More Terrorists Than They Kill,”
The Intercept
(July 16, 2015). The officer referred to was army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, an intelligence specialist.

 49.
In his important book
Kill Chain
(New York, 2015), Andrew Cockburn makes precisely this point.

 50.
A point made by Malise Ruthven, “Inside the Islamic State,”
The New York Review of Books
(July 9, 2015).

 51.
For the original AFRICOM mission statement, see Major General Buz Altshuler, “United States Africa Command” (October 16, 2008).

 52.
The AFRICOM AOR was formed out of countries previously falling under the purview of United States European Command, Central Command, and Pacific Command. Although part of Africa, Egypt remained within the CENTCOM AOR.

 53.
Nick Turse,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield
(Chicago, 2015), 90.

 54.
“United States Africa Command: Mission,”
africom.mil/about-the-command
, June 20, 2015.

 55.
Turse,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield
, 3.

 56.
Michael M. Phillips, “New Way the U.S. Projects Power Around the Globe: Commandos,”
The Wall Street Journal
(April 24, 2015).

 57.
United States Africa Command, “2012 Posture Statement” (March 1, 2012).

 58.
For all of these developments, the best primer to date is Turse,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield.

 59.
Eric Schmitt, “Elite U.S. Troops Helping Africans Fight Terror,”
The New York Times
(May 27, 2014).

 60.
For further elucidation, see Lieutenant Colonel Jack Marr et al., “Human Terrain Mapping: A Critical First Step to Winning the COIN Fight,”
Military Review
(March–April 2008).

 61.
Eliza Griswold, “The Next Front,”
The New York Times Magazine
(June 15, 2014).

 62.
Adam Nossiter, “Soldiers Overthrow Mali Government in Setback for Democracy in Africa,”
The New York Times
(March 22, 2012). The coup leaders were unhappy with the government’s effort to quash a rebellion in northern Mali instigated by Toureg tribesmen, who had fled Libya in the way of Gaddafi’s overthrow. The Toureg had hired themselves out to Gaddafi as mercenaries. With his removal, there were no more paychecks, so it was time to head home.

 63.
Adam Nossiter, “In Nigeria, More Attacks on Militants,”
The New York Times
(May 17, 2013).

 64.
Turse,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield
, 100.

 65.
“Burkina Faso,”
africom.mil/africa/west-africa/burkina-faso
, accessed September 29, 2015.

 66.
Turse,
Tomorrow’s Battlefield
, 37.

17. Iraq, Again

 1.
Michael R. Gordon and Duraid Adnan, “Brazen Attacks at Prisons Raise Worries of Al Qaeda’s Strength in Iraq,”
The New York Times
(July 23, 2013).

 2.
In February 2014, Al Qaeda disowned ISIS, which now gained recognition as a distinct entity. Liz Sly, “Al Qaeda Disavows Ties to Hard-Line Iraqi-Syrian Affiliate Fighting Assad,”
The Washington Post
(February 4, 2014).

 3.
“Remarks at Solo Press Availability” (January 5, 2014).

 4.
“Remarks by Secretary Hagel at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas” (January 8, 2014).

 5.
Richard Sisk, “U.S. to Ramp Up Arms Deliveries to Iraq,”
Military.com
(January 6, 2014).

 6.
Andrew Tilghman and Jeff Schogol, “How Did 800 ISIS Fighters Rout Two Iraqi Divisions?”
Military Times
(June 12, 2014).

 7.
Liz Sly and Ahmed Ramadan, “Insurgents Seize Iraqi City of Mosul as Security Forces Flee,”
The Washington Post
(June 10, 2014).

 8.
Martin Matishak and Alexander Bolton, “McCain: Obama’s Entire National Security Team Should Resign over Iraq,”
The Hill
(June 12, 2014).

 9.
Frederick Kagan, “Put Out This Fire,” New York
Daily News
(June 15, 2014).

 10.
Max Boot, “Obama’s Iraq,”
The Weekly Standard
(June 23, 2014).

 11.
Kagan, “Put Out This Fire.”

 12.
“Remarks on the Situation in Iraq and an Exchange with Reporters” (June 19, 2014).

 13.
“Press Briefing with Rear Adm. Kirby in the Pentagon Briefing Room” (June 27, 2014).

 14.
“Statement from Pentagon Press Secretary, Rear Admiral John Kirby on Additional Security Forces to Iraq” (June 30, 2014).

 15.
“Statement by the President” (August 7, 2014).

 16.
“U.S. Military ISIS Air Strikes in Iraq: Day-by-Day Breakdown,”
The Guardian
(September 3, 2014). This article provides CENTCOM data on sorties and targets.

 17.
“Department of Defense Press Briefing by Lt. Gen. Mayville in the Pentagon Briefing Room” (August 11, 2014).

 18.
“Statement by the President on ISIL” (September 10, 2014).

 19.
President Obama neither requested nor received congressional approval to begin this military operation, citing as sufficient the Authorization for Use of Military Force passed on September 14, 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks. In February 2015, Obama went through the motions of asking Congress for a specific authorization. Congress did not act on that request, implicitly ceding to the president the authority to interpret the September 2001 law however he wished.

 20.
The first U.S. airstrike in Syria occurred on September 22, 2014. To give the operation an Arab coloration, aircraft from Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates participated in a supporting role.

 21.
“Department of Defense Press Briefing by General Austin in the Pentagon Press Briefing Room” (October 17, 2014).

 22.
In August, the number was 211; by December, it was 1,867. “Combined Forces Air Component Commander, 2010–2015 Airpower Statistics” (May 31, 2015),
www.defense.gov/home/features/2014/0814_iraq/docs/31%20May%202015.pdf
, accessed July 3, 2015.

 23.
Micah Zenko, “Chart: The Airstrikes in Iraq and Syria vs. Previous Military Campaigns,”
Defense One
(July 6, 2015).

 24.
Anthony H. Cordesman, “The Air War Against the Islamic State” (October 29, 2014),
csis.org/publication/air-war-against-islamic-state-need-adequacy-resources
, accessed July 5, 2015.

 25.
“Department of Defense Press Briefing by General Austin,” (October 17, 2014).

 26.
Loveday Morris, “The U.S. Military Is Back Training Troops in Iraq, but It’s a Little Different This Time,”
The Washington Post
(January 8, 2015); Rod Nordland, “U.S. Soldiers, Back in Iraq, Find Security Forces in Disrepair,”
The New York Times
(April 4, 2015).

 27.
Sebastian Payne, “Gen. Martin Dempsey: U.S. Called in Apache Helicopters to Protect Baghdad Airport,”
The Washington Post
(October 12, 2014).

 28.
Julian E. Barnes, “U.S., Iraq Prepare Offensive to Retake Mosul from Islamic State,”
The Wall Street Journal
(January 22, 2015).

 29.
U.S. Senate, Committee on Armed Services, “Hearing to Receive Testimony on U.S. Central Command…” (March 26, 2015).

 30.
Bill Roggio, “U.S. Claims 10,000 Islamic State Fighters Killed Since Start of Air Campaign,”
Long War Journal
(June 3, 2015).

 31.
Jessica Stern and J. M. Berger, “ISIS and the Foreign Fighter Phenomenon,”
The Atlantic
(March 8, 2015).

 32.
Among the forces fighting against ISIS, the Peshmerga probably rated as most willing and most capable. Yet arming and assisting the Kurds, widely suspected of seeking to create a fully sovereign Kurdish state, necessarily alarmed other important allies in the region such as Turkey. The United States found itself obliged to walk a fine line. Rukmini Callimachi, “Inside Syria: Kurds Roll Back ISIS, but Alliances Are Strained,”
The New York Times
(August 10, 2015).

 33.
Helene Cooper and Eric Schmitt, “ISIS Official Killed in U.S. Raid in Syria, Pentagon Says,”
The New York Times
(May 16, 2015).

 34.
“Combined Forces Air Component Commander, 2010–2015 Airpower Statistics” (May 31, 2015).

 35.
“Department of Defense Press Briefing with General Weidley via Teleconference from Southwest Asia” (May 15, 2015).

 36.
“McCain: ‘Black Flag of ISIS’ Flies Where Soldiers Died” (May 25, 2015),
12news.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/25/mccain-isis-ramadi-memorial-day/27933069/
, accessed July 5, 2015.

 37.
Frederick W. Kagan and Kimberly Kagan, “The Fall of Ramadi Was Avoidable,”
The Washington Post
(May 18, 2015).

 38.
“U.S. Policy in Iraq and Syria” (May 21, 2015),
c-span.org/video/?326186-1/hearing-us-policy-iraq-syria
, accessed July 6, 2015.