Boots in the Air: Obama introduces Apache attack helicopters into the fight against ISIS

AH-64D Apache Longbow.jpg

Are these non-combat Apache attack helicopters?

Via The Hill:

The U.S. military has introduced low-flying Apache attack helicopters into the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a development that some experts say brings U.S. troops closer to combat.
Previously, the U.S. has only used fighter aircraft, bombers and drones to strike ISIS targets. Using the slower-flying helicopters, which can fire with more precision, could expose U.S. troops to more risk, experts say.
On Friday, Time reported that Iraqi officials said an Mi-35 Iraq military attack helicopter was shot down by ISIS militants in Northern Iraq with a rocket launcher. The helicopter’s pilot and co-pilot were killed.
Some experts say using the helicopters is an admission that an air-only campaign by fighter jets and drones has failed to stop ISIS’s momentum, and shows that more needs to be done.
“It’s definitely boots in the air. This is combat, assuming U.S. Army guys were flying the helicopters,” Jeffrey White, a defense fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, told McClatchy.
“Using helicopter gunships in combat operations means those forces are in combat,” he said.

Saturday Night Fun: Apache Insurgent Ownage

Saturday Night Fun: Apache Insurgent Ownage

Apache Gunships in Iraq Combat: Punish the Deserving (video)

Here is a little Sunday afternoon action of Apache's doing what they do best; blowing stuff up. Enjoy!

Friday Night Fun: Apaches Blast Terrorists (video)

A compilation of Apache death strikes on terrorists.

AP Admits Health Care Bills Include Abortion Funding

On August 2, 2009, AP writer Charles Babington wrote this "fact check" insinuating abortion would not be covered under the health care reform bills.

CLAIM: Health care revisions would lead to government-funded abortions.

Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council says in a video, "Unless Congress states otherwise, under a government takeover of health care, taxpayers will be forced to fund abortions for the first time in over three decades."

THE FACTS: The proposed bills would not undo the Hyde Amendment, which bars paying for abortions through Medicaid, the government insurance program for the poor. But a health care overhaul could create a government-run insurance program, or insurance "exchanges," that would not involve Medicaid and whose abortion guidelines are not yet clear.

Obama recently told CBS that the nation should continue a tradition of "not financing abortions as part of government-funded health care."

The House Energy and Commerce Committee amended the House bill Thursday to state that health insurance plans have the option of covering abortion, but no public money can be used to fund abortions. The bill says health plans in a new purchasing exchange would not be required to cover abortion but that each region of the country should have at least one plan that does.

Congressional action this fall will determine whether such language is in the final bill.

Today, AP has a story headlined, "Gov't insurance would allow coverage for abortion."

WASHINGTON — Health care legislation before Congress would allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to cover abortions, a decision that would affect millions of women and recast federal policy on the divisive issue.

I wonder if all the media sources who ran the incorrect "fact check" story will be honest enough to run the new AP headline.

Apache Takes Out Insurgent Mortar Team (video)

AH-64 Gunship Takes Out Insurgent Mortar Team + Mortar Tube With 2 Hellfire Missiles In Iraq.