https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARkeDYFtDMk
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters didn’t mince words Monday when asked about President Obama’s strategy on tackling and destroying ISIS — and was suspended by Fox News for it.
Peters, a former armor officer and military intelligence expert who retired from the service in 1998 and has written more than 30 novels and works of non-fiction, is also an outspoken media commentator and regular on Fox News.
His comments came to Stuart Varney on Fox Business’ Varney & Co. on his dismay after the President did not announce an expansion in the war against ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
“Look, Mr. President we’re not afraid we’re angry, we’re pissed off, we’re furious,” Peters said. “We want you to react, we want you to do something. You’re afraid. I mean this guy is such a total pussy, its stunning. And, you know, we want — we the people, the American people, whom he does not know in any intimate sort of manner, we want action. We want action against Islamic State and then — then, when the president is telling us he is going to destroy ISIS.”
Varney later directed Peters to either apologize for his language or retract his statement, which he did.
“My choice of words was incorrect, but my sentiment, I think, is shared by many,” Peters said in closing.
The U.S. campaign against the insurgent force in Syria and Iraq, begun last August as Operation Inherent Resolve, has carried out a total of 8,573 strikes damaging or destroying over 16,000 targets in the region as of Dec. 1 over the course of 59,015 aircraft sorties from everything from B-1B bombers to Predator drones. As of Nov. 15, the total estimated cost 465 days into the campaign was $5.2 billion with the average daily cost placed at $11 million.
This week, records obtained by USA Today found that the Air Force has expended more than 20,000 missiles and bombs in the on going air campaign, dropping available stocks to dangerously low levels and forcing emergency purchases to retain war reserves.
Meanwhile, some 50 U.S. special operations personnel are deploying to Syria on what the Pentagon calls an advise-and-assist mission in what the Wall Street Journal termed the first sustained ground presence in the embattled country
Bill Shine, senior executive vice president of programming for Fox News and Fox Business, told Guns.com that both Peters and Stacey Dash, who also dropped language in reference to the President, caught a two week suspension as a result of their choice of words.
“Earlier today, Fox contributors Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and Stacey Dash made comments on different programs that were completely inappropriate and unacceptable for our air. Fox Business Network and Fox News Channel do not condone the use of such language, and have suspended both Peters and Dash for two weeks,” Shine told Guns.com
