“As strange as it may seem to some, for guys like us it was a scene of somber beauty to see our enemy cut down and lying in pieces on the ground,” writes United States Air Force Master Sergeant Wes Bryant of dead Islamic State jihadists. Such raw intensity characterizes the new book Hunting the Caliphate: America’s War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell, a gripping modern war diary about the American-led air campaign against the Islamic State (ISIS).
Modern technology allowed Bryant and his coauthor, United States Army Major General Dana Pittard, the coalition commander for the anti-ISIS airstrikes begun in August 2014, a detailed view of air power’s devastation of ISIS. Ensconced in high-tech command centers in Baghdad, Pittard and Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) such as Bryant with years of Special Forces experience observed Iraq and Syria’s battlegrounds though reconnaissance drone videos. The coauthors could then methodically rain down death and destruction upon ISIS forces from coalition warplanes and armed drones operating in the Mesopotamian skies.
Bryant and Pittard both related how they fought ISIS after years of deployment in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq in America’s long wars in the Dar al-Islam that began after Al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Pittard recounted how he was on fellowship at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government that fateful day when about 300 students and faculty gathered in the school’s foyer auditorium. As they watched “CNN in horrified silence as it projected images on a giant video screen,” a “collective groan came from the crowd and several ‘Oh my Gods,’” yet he “was stunned when a couple of Middle Eastern students actually clapped!”
Bryant likewise detailed his combat experience in the “one big mess that was the war in Afghanistan.” For almost two decades, American forces here “were constantly taking ground, losing it, and then taking it again—an endless cycle to nowhere.” Amid ever-shifting strategies, unrealistic, politically-influenced Rules of Engagement (ROE), and Afghan government corruption, “most of us felt like we were sacrificing everything for absolutely nothing.”
The warrior Bryant reflected upon the corresponding toll upon his psyche. His “experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan had given me a deep suspicion of all Arabs and Middle Easterners—all Muslims, really.” He “knew deep down that it was irrational to feel that way,” but he “had only seen the bad in that part of the world.”
Accordingly, even while temporarily in America’s regional Gulf ally Bahrain, Bryant “still felt uncomfortable” among Muslims as he struggled to reconcile his aversions with a common humanity. A group of teenage girls in a Bahrain shopping mall impressed him with their “traditional black burkhas with just faces showing,” albeit “extravagantly made-up.” He speculated: was this glamour the “one method of self-expression they had within the confines of the subjugating dogma of their religion” that “exemplified some sort of internal struggle?”
However hardened veterans like Bryant and Pittard were, ISIS jihadists, perhaps just as skilled as savage fighters, presented a rude shock. Pittard contrasted President Barack Obama’s amateur assessment in a New Yorker profile that ISIS was the “jayvee [JV] team” among jihadists with Pittard’s long experience with “quite a few radical Islamic terrorist groups.” None “were as well financed, highly disciplined, and competently led as ISIS,” a force that even defeated the Kurds’ Peshmerga troops, who “had become legendary during their many years of fighting Saddam Hussein’s troops.”
Bryant concurred that ISIS “displayed tactical abilities and a level of organizational discipline unprecedented for an insurgency force” while being the “most fanatical group we’d ever seen.” He and his colleagues “were often surprised at the level of capability ISIS showed even in comparison to some of the best-trained Iraqi ground forces.” When drones videoed unidentified forces, the “going rule became ‘if they move tactically sound, they’re probably ISIS.’” Where fanaticism was insufficient motivation, he noted that ISIS encouraged fighting spirit with drugs including cocaine and punishments like torture for battlefield failure.
Even when Pittard commanded an air campaign that ravaged ISIS, he noted its adaption. ISIS responded by rarely moving in convoys larger than three military vehicles or using civilian cars to camouflage fighter movement. ISIS forces also “tried to use our respect for humanity to their advantage” by sheltering behind mosques and “human shields.”
While ISIS showed decisiveness, Pittard condemned that Obama and Congress’ “response to the ISIS threat was truly underwhelming” and “embarrassing” to the “world’s last remaining true superpower.” “More decisive action earlier on by the Obama administration…might have stopped ISIS from taking over nearly a third of Iraq” during the summer of 2014. Particularly Kurds and Iraqis “were incredulous that we offered such limited assistance,” as they were “fighting for their very existence.”
With only “limited authorizations for airstrikes,” Pittard “couldn’t do anything about a lot of what we saw,” like a drone’s “gut-wrenching live video that haunts me to this day” of ISIS massacring 80 Yazidis. Similarly, on August 9, 2014, as many as 600 ISIS fighters in over fifty captured American armored Humvees and other military and civilian vehicles approached the Kurdish town of Makhmur. Merely two days before he had received Obama’s authorization to stop ISIS’ advance into Kurdish territory.
Pittard had accordingly directed United States Marine Corps Colonel Eduardo Abisellan and other officers “to draw a red ‘no penetration line’ on our operational maps.” Yet Makhmur was mere kilometers outside the “no penetration” zone and the “ISIS fighters never crossed our arbitrary Abisellan Line.” Advised by military lawyers, Pittard’s superiors refused airstrike permission and his coalition “never got another shot at such a lucrative target,” which included, later intelligence showed, as many as three top ISIS leaders.
Bryant as well chafed at operational directives. The first American Special Forces arrived in Baghdad under a State Department non-combat authorization that forbade close air support, even as their airport base regularly received ISIS rocket attacks. A few weeks later, the Special Forces received a military mission but with “incredibly stringent” close air support ROE that required direct approval from Pittard himself, and meant that “we may as well have not even had the airpower at hand.”
Bryant analyzed how this “quite lengthy” communications chain involved a busy commander for Iraq who might be unavailable and would require considerable deliberation in any crisis. “The ROE, to put it simply, were dangerous” and “yet another case of senior military officers and politicians in Washington risking the lives of those on the ground for the sake of political perception.” This situation reflected that “no one in Washington wanted U.S. bombs dropping in Iraq again, regardless of the reason, based on the potential perception that we’d be initiating another Iraq War.”
Later when the mission mandate expanded to ISIS targets in Syria, Bryant recalled how one military lawyer interpreted ROE to refuse authorization for a follow-up attack on two ISIS fighters wounded in a prior airstrike. His decision “truly stemmed from a general culture of apprehension rooted in a political climate of wavering support for the mission in Syria combined with an enduring fear of public perception toward America’s airstrike campaigns in general.” This culture was “pervasive throughout America’s war on terror.”
While Bryant and Pittard often railed against their superiors, Pittard found equally frustrating that the “anti-ISIS coalition was like herding cats—wildly cunning feral cats” in a “contentious coalition that was basically at war with itself.” This coalition included American allies, Iraqi Security Forces, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi Sunni tribes, Shia militias, Syrian Kurds, and even Syrian Army troops as well as American foes Iran and Russia. A “common enemy could help bring together strange bedfellows,” he quipped.
Correspondingly, Pittard noted that “we were only allowed to talk to certain members of the anti-ISIS coalition through certain other members,” a critical weakness during fast-paced military developments. “If we had any official coordination with the Syrian military, we would have lost the support of the Sunni Arab nations in the region who were all vehemently” supporting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s the overthrow. Yet some “under the table” intelligence coordination with Syrian forces facilitated coalition strikes on ISIS.
Pittard’s motley crew created tense situations, like when American Special Forces teams on inspection tours in Baghdad overcome a tense standoff with Shia militia only with a show of force that included an overflying F-16. Other such inspection tours were aborted when intelligence detected the presence of Iranian Quds Force Special Forces among Shia militias. “Iranian Quds Forces were in Iraq embedded with and enabling Shia militias with arms. Interaction with the Quds Forces could have created an even more convoluted situation.”
Bryant similarly “had really never seen such a unique and complex battlefield as Syria” in his 15 years serving in America’s war on terror. Russia’s 2015 entry into the conflict only made things worse, as Russian planes and drones pursuing their own military objectives had perilously close encounters with coalition forces. Many American military personnel had the “overarching feeling that we were on the brink of another world war.”
Such tensions abound in Bryant and Pittard’s war memoir, which will certainly become an important primary document for understanding the global ongoing struggle against jihadists. This knowledge is critical for a world in which developed democracies such as the United States entrust their security to a thin line of war fighters. The enlisted man Bryant and the General Pittard have given invaluable insight into the various quandaries facing these proud professionals.
Buraq says
Yet another case of ‘lions led by donkeys’!
mortimer says
Modern military technology in the hands of highly ethical commanders is the morally best way to bring supremacist, vigilante thugs to justice. Those who have no pity for others can sometimes only be stopped in the midst of their cruel careers with a bullet. Our well-trained military leaders are versed in military ethics and international law and respect them. The jihadist following Mohammed are opportunistic and amoral.
Our ethical military heroes are out there risking their lives so we may sleep safely at night and enjoy education, freedom, democracy, equality and progress. The jihadist thugs want to return the world to the medieval 7th century with ignorance, slavery, tyranny, inequality and backwardness enforced by vicious brutality, rapacious extortion and corruption and sadistic tortures.
Anyone who has studied the history of jihad and the effects of Islamic empires on the conquered peoples is under no illusion that there is any hope for people under Islam.
mortimer says
Now if they could only find Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, arrest him ALIVE and then PUT HIM ON TRIAL for crimes against humanity!
The world would then SEE CLEARLY that Islam is INCOMPATIBLE with modernity. Many millions of Muslims would then abandon Islam overnight.
When the Nazis were put on trial at Nuremberg, the world watched in shock and Germans were stricken with grief at the enormity of what they had condoned.
BRING ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI TO TRIAL.
gravenimage says
Mortimer, you have never said why Jihadists would have a problem with Islam being violent.
StreetKillaz2019 says
Major thanks to our operators, who continue to get the job done, salute!
CRUSADER says
Would you have preferred the head of AlQaeda be killed or brought to trial?
What then of the titular head of ISIS?
Walter Sieruk says
When Donald Trump was campaigning for President had said that if elected President he was going to “Bomb the hell out of ISIS.” President Trump is a good man who will keep his campaign promise. This is because that vicious and murderous jihad origination, ISIS, will not go away if left alone.
ISIS is like a cancer that if not dealt with is will grow and spread and then further terrible deadly harm. So to “Bomb the hell out of ISIS” or to put it another way to “Bomb ISIS to hell” is one god way to defeat and destroy the brutal and deadly jihad entity. For the malicious and murdering jihadist thugs who compose ISIS cannot be reasoned with. For the jihadist of ISIS will not respond to or understand the language of reason. The only language that the ISIS jihadists will understand is the language of being on the receiving end of many very strong powers of military might.
Therefore, to defeat and destroy ISIS means that it’s necessary to hit them hard. Hit them long, keep on hitting them and don’t stop hitting them. Meaning take them down, put them down, keep them down and don’t let them rise up again. As Thomas Jefferson had ,so well, declared “With every barbarous people…force is law.”
gravenimage says
The Islamic State has been defeated–at least for now. Something that President Trump and every American should be proud of.
Cicero says
Excellent review which clarified the dense and complex military situation in the Middle East Theatre of War.
Thank you Harrod
gravenimage says
+1
strambotik says
“traditional black burkhas with just faces showing” makes no sense. If you wear a burqa, your face is invisible.
gravenimage says
People often mix up Burqas, Niqabs, and Chadors.
Angemon says
Tangentially related:
CRUSADER says
Real, normal, average, hardworking, disciplined, competent heroes.
Twenty strikes per day into the heart of the suck !
gravenimage says
Yes!
JOHN OBRIEN says
Clearly Obama was a warrior for the Caliphate.
Eric Jones says
This is one book I will have to buy. Sultan Obama is a jihadi and should still be tried for treason. The USA will have to find a way to force Saudi Arabia and Turkey to stop funding Islamic extremist world wide.
Eric
CRUSADER says
May also want to read:
“One Second After” is a 2009 novel by American writer William R. Forstchen. The novel deals with an unexpected electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack on the United States as it affects the people living in and around the small American town of Black Mountain, North Carolina.
Released in March 2009, It was ranked as number 11 on the New York Times Best Seller list in fiction,
GreekEmpress says
CRUSADER,
I just finished “Sheep No More”. It really changes how you perceive and assess your surroundings. I read “One Second After” a few years ago. Excellent read on what COULD happen. Just started “Confessions of an Islamophobe” by our own Robert Spencer.
CRUSADER says
It’s always refreshing to go back to reading Spencer. I like to inter-splice him into my reading, between books, as I miss his writing when not presently reading him.
CRUSADER says
Yemen 🇾🇪 rebels claim shooting down US drone…
CRUSADER says
Movies 🎥
“Good Kill”
Air Force drone pilot (Ethan Hawke) begins to question the ethics of dropping bombs on Afghanistan from the safety of his post in Las Vegas.
“Drone”
Neil (Sean Bean) is a high-level private drone contractor who spends his workdays flying covert missions then returns to a family life of suburban mediocrity. Not even Neil’s wife or his son know about his secret life.
“Eye in the Sky”
Colonel Katherine Powell ( Helen Mirren ), a UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya.
gravenimage says
The use of drones is not completely fool-proof, but right now this is as close as we can get. Moreover, this is getting better all the time. I find this entirely ethical.
Linde Barrera says
In my opinion, Bryant and Pittard and every US military person who actually is on the ground fighting is a genuine hero. God bless them all and may God make them successful in civilian life.
In my opinion, Obama was and is a Muslim, so he gave orders to the tune of “2 steps forward, 1 step back”. Islam is the reason that there are factional groups within Islamic countries. When these groups fight each other, they invite the West to get involved so they have allies. Then when the fighting is finally all over, the factional groups blame the western infidels for “provocation”. This is just 1 more piece of evidence to me that Islam is the religion of Satan the devil.
Lastly, in my opinion, many of those US Army lawyers and judges are corrupt and have to be terminated. They prosecute our brave US soldiers like 1st Lieutenant Clint Lorance for protecting US troops because men like Clint gave the order to shoot the Afghani or Iraqi insurgents who were bomb makers and did not stop at the check point as they were told to do. Other men still in Leavenworth prison for following orders who served in Iraq and Afghanistan are Robert Bales, John Hatley, Calvin Gibbs, and a few others. YET traitors like Bowie Bergdahl were pardoned by Obama. Why? This whole subject makes me puke and I am praying that President Trump will give each of these brave US soldiers a Presidential Pardon.
ninetyninepct says
Unfortunately killers like Trudeau’s hero and idol, Omar Khadr, received medical care by the very people he was killing, only to be brought back to Canada and rewarded with $10.5 million by Trudeau after he killed an American soldier and blinded another.
Trudeau is a liar. Trudeau is dangerous. Trudeau has deliberately manipulated the Courts and investigative Committees as well as the Canadian Legal System so he wouldn’t have to face criminal charges and appear in a Criminal Court.