Apparently, one of the sticking points between SecDef Gates and the Air Force leadership involved a dispute over whether to deploy the F-22 to Iraq:
The Air Force wanted to send the F-22 to the Middle East and Defense Secretary Robert Gates nixed the plans, citing the strategic danger from the deployment if it were misread by Iran, among other factors. This comes from a single usually reliable source with knowledge of Air Force policy and operations….
The Air Force wanted the F-22 deployed for the same sort of reasons that drove the service’s decision to send B-2 bombers to Kosovo, to prove its effectiveness and demonstrate overwhelming US air superiority. A successful deployment — complete with videos of successful strikes and quotes from jubilant air crews — might have led Congress and the public to support a substantial increase in the number of F-22s purchased.
It’s fair to say that the deployment of the F-22 to Iraq would add virtually nothing to the combat capacity of the USAF in the region, except in case of war with Iran. The F-22 is exceptionally sophisticated, but its capabilities are wasted in Iraq, where any aircraft can deliver the necessary munitions. Even if a war with Iran was launched, the presence of the F-22 would only marginally accelerate the destruction of the Iranian Air Force. The effort to deploy the F-22, it would appear, was a transparent attempt to manufacture a greater role for the favored aircraft of the Air Force in the War on Terror, and Gates saw right through it.
–Robert Farley
