In a move that smacks of hubris, president Obama is going to make a speech to the American people on Wednesday evening to lay out the strategy he plans to use to "degrade and destroy" ISIS. A day earlier, Obama will meet with congressional leaders and brief them about the plan. Obama said all this during an interview with NBC's Chuck Todd. Obama also said in that interview that his administration has seen no intelligence that suggests an immediate threat to the U.S. from the Islamic State group. Oh, and as he usually does, Obama told Chuck Todd that there would be no American boots on the ground. (The 1200 Americans he just sent to Iraq apparently don't count.)
I have to say that it is tempting fate to use the evening before September 11th to lay out a strategy for the destruction of a new Islamic terrorist group. I would think that the temptation for ISIS to strike an American target on the next day will now be overwhelming. Nothing may happen, but that won't be because ISIS (or al Qaeda for that matter) does not want to take action that day.
Forgetting for the moment Obama's poor choice of a date for the speech, we all should hope that Obama presents some sort of coherent strategy that he will actually follow. ISIS truly is a danger to American interests in the Middle East and here at home. These people are on a power trip in which they believe that they speak for God no matter what they say or do. It is a mass delusion affecting thousands of ISIS fighters. The sooner these jihadists learn that they are not all powerful, the sooner some of the crazies will become disillusioned and leave the cause. Also, the sooner there are areas liberated from ISIS control so that the true nature of their reign of terror is exposed to the world, the more likely it will be that the vast majority of the people in the area will oppose these nut jobs.
In his discussion of ISIS, Obama noted that there will be a new government in Baghdad in the next week or so. I hope the president does not get caught up in this fiction of a national Iraqi government. The new prime minister will rule a country that is only really half as large as it was a year ago. The other half is now mostly the ISIS state or the Kurdish state. America needs to recognize that reality in formulating its strategy. Obama cannot push a solution that results in the Kurds once again being subjugated to the rest of Iraq at the end of the battle. The Kurds have been oppressed for many decades by the Turks, the Iranians and the Iraqis (both Sunni and Shiite). They have been friends of the USA and strong allies and fighters as well. They deserve their own country or at least a fully autonomous region of Iraq. Taking the wrong position on the Kurdish issue could easily take the best fighters out of the battle once all of Kurdistan is safe. That would be a terrible result; America needs the help of the Kurds if we are not sending our own troops to oust the ISIS fighters. No one in his right mind would rely instead on the Iraqi army.
Let's pray that Obama's speech does not goad ISIS or al Qaeda into showing their strength by launching a terror attack on September 11th this year.
I have to say that it is tempting fate to use the evening before September 11th to lay out a strategy for the destruction of a new Islamic terrorist group. I would think that the temptation for ISIS to strike an American target on the next day will now be overwhelming. Nothing may happen, but that won't be because ISIS (or al Qaeda for that matter) does not want to take action that day.
Forgetting for the moment Obama's poor choice of a date for the speech, we all should hope that Obama presents some sort of coherent strategy that he will actually follow. ISIS truly is a danger to American interests in the Middle East and here at home. These people are on a power trip in which they believe that they speak for God no matter what they say or do. It is a mass delusion affecting thousands of ISIS fighters. The sooner these jihadists learn that they are not all powerful, the sooner some of the crazies will become disillusioned and leave the cause. Also, the sooner there are areas liberated from ISIS control so that the true nature of their reign of terror is exposed to the world, the more likely it will be that the vast majority of the people in the area will oppose these nut jobs.
In his discussion of ISIS, Obama noted that there will be a new government in Baghdad in the next week or so. I hope the president does not get caught up in this fiction of a national Iraqi government. The new prime minister will rule a country that is only really half as large as it was a year ago. The other half is now mostly the ISIS state or the Kurdish state. America needs to recognize that reality in formulating its strategy. Obama cannot push a solution that results in the Kurds once again being subjugated to the rest of Iraq at the end of the battle. The Kurds have been oppressed for many decades by the Turks, the Iranians and the Iraqis (both Sunni and Shiite). They have been friends of the USA and strong allies and fighters as well. They deserve their own country or at least a fully autonomous region of Iraq. Taking the wrong position on the Kurdish issue could easily take the best fighters out of the battle once all of Kurdistan is safe. That would be a terrible result; America needs the help of the Kurds if we are not sending our own troops to oust the ISIS fighters. No one in his right mind would rely instead on the Iraqi army.
Let's pray that Obama's speech does not goad ISIS or al Qaeda into showing their strength by launching a terror attack on September 11th this year.
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