Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Iraq has requested U.S. military intervention.

The administration of President Barack Obama has confirmed an Iraqi request for U.S. military operations to stop the advance of Al Qaida’s Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. Officials said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki relayed an urgent request for U.S. air strikes.

“We have a request from the Iraqi government for air power,” U.S. Joint
Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said.

In testimony to the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee on June
18, Dempsey said the United States was committed to stopping ISIL. But he
refused to say whether the administration would approve the Iraqi request
for air strikes.

“It is in our national security interest to counter ISIL wherever we
find them,” Dempsey said.

Officials warned that ISIL was expanding its control over northern and
central Iraq. They said the Iraqi military, with significant help from Iran,
has failed to push back ISIL, which reached within 40 kilometers of Baghdad.

Congress has been wary of U.S. military intervention. Later on June 18,
House and Senate leaders met Obama, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
expressing opposition to direct U.S. military intervention. Others blamed Al
Maliki for the Sunni revolt in northern Iraq, which preceded the ISIL
offensive.

“The Maliki government, candidly, has got to go if you want any
reconciliation,” Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein
said.

But the U.S. military said it was ready to launch operations against
ISIL in Iraq. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said air strikes could
begin within hours of an order by Obama.

“I’m very confident that if the order comes down our air force would be
ready,” Ms. James said. “We have strike capabilities should those be called
for.”

In a briefing before Dempsey’s testimony, Ms. James said the air force
could draw from F-15E, F-16 and F-22 fighter-jets; KC-135 tankers; A-10
strike aircraft; B-1B bombers; and C-17 and C-130 air transports. She cited
military deployment in such Gulf Cooperation Council states near Iraq as
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“We have a variety of assets already over there in the regular order and
of course we have others that could be moved within a matter of a fairly
short period of time should that be asked of us,” Ms. James said.

  Congress wary, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Nouri Al Maliki, U.S. Air Force ‘ready’ after urgent request by Iraq for air strikes