Killing Them With Kindness? Iraqi Pilots Drop Emergency Food and Ammunition . . . To Islamic State Militants

Iraqi pilots are rechecking their coordinate calculations after they mistakenly dropped food, water and ammunition to Islamic State militants rather than besieged Iraqi forces fighting the militants. It is the latest blunder by a military that, despite billions and billions in U.S. training and equipment, continues to face regular desertions and defeats in the field.

An Iraqi general explained that the pilots were “young and new.”

The most recent blunder throws into question how our air support will make a difference when the Iraqi forces face rampant corruption and negligence in their leadership. However, the solution of recommitting troops would return our forces to a quagmire of sectarian violence.

In fairness, the United States in World War II had such incidents, though with today’s GPS and locational technology such failures are less common.