ISIS Nearly Made It To Baghdad Airport, Top U.S. Military Leader Says

[Purveyor]

Source: CNN

(CNN) -- The leader of U.S. military efforts to fight ISIS in Iraq says the terror group came within 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) of the Baghdad airport.

Offering what appeared to be previously unreported details, Gen. Martin Dempsey told ABC's "This Week" that the United States had to risk bringing in low-flying attack helicopters to keep ISIS at bay.

"The tool that was immediately available was the Apache [helicopter]. The risk of operating in a hostile environment is there constantly," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

"You're not going to wait until they're climbing over the wall," Dempsey said. "Had [ISIS forces] overrun the Iraqi unit, it was a straight shot to the Baghdad airport. So, we're not going to let that happen."

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/12/politics/isis-baghdad-martin-dempsey/

[Historic NY]

1. Napalm & AC-130's batting cleanup...

I'd imagine they have real time intelligence of them gathering (swarming)

[AnalystInParadise]

7. Doesn't matter

Our intelligence shows us that they constantly have women and children in the same convoys as their fighters, that is why we have limited our airstrikes. These civilians are part of every convoy, that's why our response has been so muted. The propaganda we would give them if we launched an airstrike and killed a dozen teenage brides and their babies would be terrible.

[Rhinodawg]

2. Coming soon to the former Iraq.

The Islamic Caliphate .

That's going to be just great.

[flamingdem]

3. Well, well, we were wondering what they were for

and now we know, yeesh.

[TwilightGardener]

4. At least they had everything ready to go, just in case. Points for quick reaction.

[quadrature]

5. ISIS crossed into Iraq around NewYears

9 months is plenty of time

[TwilightGardener]

6. And we gave the Iraqi government more missiles to fight them, at that time.

But the Sunnis in Fallujah and elsewhere wanted to use ISIS to gain leverage against the Maliki/Shiite government. Between Sunni support/tolerance of ISIS and Iraqi military incompetence and morale issues, there wasn't much we could do to keep the situation from unfolding the way it did.