Two key Republican lawmakers, channeling U.S. troop frustration at having their hands tied in the war on the Islamic State, are calling for the ages-old “rules of engagement” to be rewritten to allow wider attacks on the terrorists.
“The rules of engagement need to be changed,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “All the Air Force generals that I talk to, they all say this is insane, that we cannot hit these targets because of zero collateral damage.”
In the Senate, Armed Services Chairman John McCain agreed.
“We need to review … this whole business of the rules of war in this new kind of challenge that we are facing, a new kind of war that we are in,” said McCain, a former Vietnam War POW.
McCain said during a recent visit to Iraq he talked with junior officers who expressed frustration with the rules. “They are not happy because of the restraints that have been placed on them,” he said.
One key example McCain and McCaul cited was that Air Force jets launched with bombs and missiles on missions to attack Islamic State strongholds typically come back with 70-75 percent of their weapons unused.
And even after the Paris attacks, President Obama gave the OK to begin bombing oil tankers used by the terrorist group to sell stolen fuel. The military dropped leaflets to warn the drivers to get out of their rigs.
McCaul said the military also has to get the green light to hit areas where the Islamic State plots on social media. He said the organization sends out 200,000 tweets a day, sometimes from Internet cafes, and uses an encrypted smartphone app that the U.S. hasn’t cracked.
McCain noted that in Paris, the terrorist attackers spend just $10,000, a sign at how unsophisticated they are. “Stateless organizations don’t have a particular interest in any kind of adherence to the rules of war,” he said.
As he prepares for possible congressional action on the rules, he urged the public to pay attention to the torture, cruelty and murder committed by the Islamic State and use that as a guiding indicator in how they are treated by U.S. troops.
In the meantime, he said he is considering a call for a joint administration and congressional commission to revise the rules that have been in place for decades to take on stateless terror groups.
Capitol Hill jobs go through talk radio’s Laura Ingraham
Laura Ingraham, the queen of talk radio and an influential voice on the Right in the upcoming presidential election, also turns out to be a satellite Capitol Hill employment office.
An analysis comparing workers from “The Laura Ingraham Show” over the past 15 years and congressional staff hires shows that she has placed at least 10 in key Capitol Hill jobs.
That’s a pretty big share because her staffs are typically small, as with many independent talk radio hosts, said the analysis from LegiStorm, which charts congressional action and staffing.
“There appears to be a strong employment link between the show and Congress,” it said. And it’s not just paid staff, but also Ingraham’s interns who are winning jobs.
Many of her former associates have landed positions in communications and media. While with her radio program, they often booked lawmakers and newsmakers and also talked up the show. A few examples include Matt Wolking, who is the press secretary for the House Select Committee on Benghazi, and Alyssa Farah, communications director for Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s government operations subcommittee.
Most have worked for House members, but three senators also tapped into Ingraham’s network: former Sen. Jon Kyl and current Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Dan Sullivan of Alaska.
War on terror wins youth backing, but few recruits
The shocking images of Islamic State beheadings, last month’s Paris attack and this month’s terror-inspired San Bernardino, Calif., shootings have resulted in strong support among younger voters for adding U.S. troops to the war on the Islamic group.
But a new Harvard University Institute of Politics poll finds that those same voters, aged 18-29, have no interest in shooting the terrorists themselves.
“There clearly seems to be a disconnect between what people say they prefer the country to do and what they’re willing to do as individuals,” Polling Director John Della Volpe told the Washington Examiner.
His numbers: Sixty percent back sending ground troops, but 85 percent “probably” or “definitely” won’t join. The “definitely not join” group was highest, at 62 percent.
Who’s going? The poll found that Hispanics are on top, at 22 percent, and Republicans, more than two-to-one over Democrats, 24 percent to 11 percent.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
