President Barack Obama is giving U.S. Air Force pilots impossible missions: Conduct airstrikes on Islamic State (ISIS) positions in populated areas without killing even a single civilian.
Rep. Ed Royce, R-California, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, made the stunning disclosure to the Washington Free Beacon on Wednesday, WND reported.
He said as a result of Obama's strict order, the pilots could not get clearance to hit their targets even when they're in front of them.
Royce said he has talked to the pilots who have returned from deployments. They say Obama refuses to permit airstrikes "75 percent of the time against ISIS," he said.
"You went 12 full months while ISIS was on the march without the U.S. using that air power and now as the pilots come back to talk to us they say three-quarters of our ordnance we can't drop, we can't get clearance even when we have a clear target in front of us," Royce said.
"I don't understand this strategy at all because this is what has allowed ISIS the advantage and ability to recruit."
Jack Keane, a retired four-star U.S. general, said he is also aware of the restrictions imposed by Obama on pilots conducting airstrikes.
"This has been an absurdity from the beginning," Keane was quoted by the Free Beacon as saying in its report.
"When we agreed we were going to do air power and the military said, this is how it would work, he [Obama] said, 'No, I do not want any civilian casualties.' And the response was, 'But there's always some civilian casualties. We have the best capability in the world to protect from civilians casualties.'"
Obama's reply was, "No, you don't understand. I want no civilian casualties. Zero," Keane said.
Commenting on this, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh said the Obama restriction on airstrikes is a "delusional recipe for disaster."
"The bottom line is there's no way we're gonna win this. We're being led by somebody who may not even be serious about winning," Limbaugh said Friday.
Keane said unlike the U.S., France and Russia are attacking ISIS positions with no zero-civilian casualty restriction.
"Believe me, the French are in there not using the restrictions we have imposed on our pilots," Keane said. "And the Russians don't care at all about civilians."
Records provided by the Defense Department show that the U.S. has dropped more than 22,000 bombs on ISIS targets during more than 8,000 sorties since the beginning of the year.
A Pentagon official speaking on condition of anonymity defended Obama's orders.
"The bottom line is that we will not stoop to the level of our enemy and put civilians more in harm's way than absolutely necessary," the official told the Free Beacon. "The fact that aircraft go on missions and don't strike anything is not out of the norm. Despite U.S. strikes being the most precise in the history of warfare, conducting strike operations in the heavily populated areas where ISIL hides certainly presents challenges. We are fighting an enemy who goes out of their way to put civilians at risk."
