An Increasingly Aerial War
`It is impossible, really, to miss the overt signs of the ongoing air war in Iraq when you are there, which makes the lack of coverage all the more startling. At night, while standing on the roof of my hotel in Baghdad during the November 2004 assault on Fallujah, a city some 40-odd miles away, I could see on the horizon the distant flashes of U.S. bombs that were searing that embattled city. [..]
In his recent article and interview, Hersh rightly reflects the concern of American military men that, in any proposed draw-down plan for American forces, Iraqi security forces are likely to be given some responsibility for Air Force targeting operations. After all, they’ll be the ones left on the ground. It’s an idea, he reports, that is “driving the Air Force crazy,” because they fear it may involve them in a future revenge war of ethnic and religious groups in Iraq.’
