Drone protest closes CIA gate as renewed US War in Iraq looms

On the 14th of June, antiwar protesters showed up at the CIA's Dolly Madison Ave entrance as drone flights over Iraq began anew. As usual, the CIA shut down the entrance due to the presence of the protesters. They have been there the second Saturday of every month since November 2012 demanding an end to the use of armed drones for assasination and bombing. Now, Obama is making menacing speeches about returning to combat in Iraq, but somehow doing it without ground troops.

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Although Iraq is the latest expansion of drone overflights, protesters pointedly condemned the recent drone killings in Pakistan, the first there in six months. One of the speakers talked of an earlier case where a young girl survived a drone strike that killed the rest of her family-with most of her face blown of. So much for "clean, surgical strikes!"

Iraq Update June 14:Most US "civilians" are now being evacuated from Iraq, about 4,500 contractors and Embassy staff remain. Obama had better have those helicopters ready for the Embasssy roof!

Obama's talk of war without ground troops, maybe war with nobody from the IS in the Iraq means drones. The only thing is, nobody can defeat ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) with drones alone. First of all, ISIS is now a real state controlling multiple cities. It is probable they already have or are now creating hardened underground bunkers, and the heaviest single bomb the Reaper/Predator B drone can carry is 1,500 pounds, with a total payload of 3,000 pounds. The big GBU-28 bunker buster bomb that can penetrate deep underground bunkers weights 4,500 pounds.

Thus, the US can't strike underground bunkers without manned aircraft. If manned aircraft are used, sooner or later one gets shot down, invoking the issue of a rescue misson for the downed aircrew. That can turn into a quagmire that leads first to a small involvement on the ground, then more and more as those under-strength units get into trouble.

No war has ever been won from the air. As far back as WWII, German Luftwaffe chief Hermann Georing promised the rest of the Nazis he could prevent the evacuation of British troops from Dunkirk with just his air force. This attempt ended in utter failure, and that pattern has been repeated ever since.