Because it's the least that Barack Obama can do - literally:
The US military has started flying attack helicopters against Islamic State militants in Iraq for the first time, officials said Monday, marking an escalation in the air war that puts American troops at higher risk.
US Central Command, which is overseeing the air campaign in Iraq and Syria, said helicopters took part in strikes on Sunday and Monday in Iraq, at a time when Iraqi government forces are struggling against IS fighters in the country's west.
"It has a capability that was asked for by the Iraqi government," said spokesman Major Curtis Kellogg.
See? It wasn't Red Barry's idea. Haider al-Abadi made him do it. Until it all goes horribly, horribly wrong, at which time Mr. Abadi will find himself being crushed and ground under the same bus tires his predecessor, Nouri al-Maliki, did.
Why are we now deploying rotary-winged as well as fixed-wing aircraft against ISIS? Because Baghdad is about to fall to the Islamic State and the optics of vampiric jihadists going on a mass-murder spree in a city of millions were judged to be worse than those of American military aircraft being shot down and American servicepeople being beheaded. The latter of which is far more likely with decrepit Apache helicopters than it is with drones, Tomahawk cruise missiles, and obsolete F-15 Fighting Falcons, F-16 Eagles, and....do we even still have F/A-18 Hornets anymore?
Our entire deployment is probably what was in the camera shot. Most likely because that was the extent of our remaining serviceable rotary-winged combat aircraft.
But, nevertheless, notice the direction in which this situation is oozing: gradual but inexorable escalation while being too slow to make any kind of tactical, much less strategic, difference. "Schlock and yawn," as it were. All pain, no gain.
But gosh darn it, those nighttime carrier shots look just like Call of Duty, don't they?
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