So much for "ending the war". I'm guessing that O is putting "Afghan support will not be prolonged" on his to-do list for August 2019. Because, as history shows, every war is as quick and easy as we think it will be:
Barack Obama's limited military action in Iraq could eventually include more military support to Iraqi security forces working to repel Islamic State fighters but American support will not be "prolonged," administration officials warned today.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said initial U.S. support will be on military strikes to protect American personnel working in Iraq, and to address the urgent humanitarian situation on Sinjar mountain.
Well. That sounds fairly well defined and limited.
But the United States also has a third goal "related to our belief and commitment to supporting integrated Iraqi security forces and Kurdish security forces as they unite the country to repel the threat" posed by Islamic State fighters, he said, reiterating that any U.S. support will not be "prolonged" and will not involve sending U.S. troops to the country.
".....yet." Sounds like mission creep to me, folks.
At least potentially. Which wouldn't be a bad thing in a belated sense if this "Operation Save Two-Face" didn't fairly reek of being "too little, too late, and all for appearance's sake." Quite obviously, the Obama palace guard has calculated that they are taking and will take a bigger PR beating from sitting back, doing nothing, and allowing ISIS to shoot, behead, and religiously cleanse their bloodthirsty way across the Middle East - their "strategy" up to now - than to eat a rare, monster-sized portion of crow and go back into Iraq militarily to create the appearance of trying to stem the tide of the Islamic State's highly embarrassing blitzkrieg. Or, in other words, serving as the de facto Iranian air force for the mullah's ground forces, already deployed in their de facto Iraqi province.
Or, in still other words, pretty much the equivalent situation The One hokey-pokeyed his way up to, but not quite into, in Syria eleven months ago (Operation Don't Mock Me). And now we'll see why ultimately staying out of Syria was the right thing to do, no matter how idiotically it was arrived at. Because the bottom line is, if we slow down ISIS, the Iranians benefit, and if we don't, ISIS wins. And either way, Iraq is irretrievably boned.
A depressing state of affairs, given the 4,486 American deaths expended to liberate and ally that now-all but defunct nation, that did not have to happen:
Iraq would not be under siege by Islamic militants if President Barack Obama had responded to a request for help three months ago from Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, General Jack Keane told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."
Al-Maliki made the initial request when the Iraqi city of Mosul fell to the militant insurgents of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Keane said, adding the United States denied that request for help.
"If he had adhered to al-Maliki's initial request, this situation we're in now would not have been happening, because we would have been using those airstrikes now for a couple months. And that's the harsh reality," Keane, a retired four-star Army general, said Friday.
One can only logically conclude from that delay that the Obama White House had no objections to ISIS's conquest of Iraq or its wholesale butchery of Christians and Shittes, and is only taking token action now because they have lost control of the "We ended the war" self-congratulatory Iraq BS narrative and are unable to contain the propaganda damage. If King Hussein had wanted to stop ISIS, he'd have heeded Nouri al-Maliki's pleas for help nine months ago when he first started uttering them. He's only sending in woefully inadequate air sorties now to save his own ass.
And the Islamic State is, shall we say, less than impressed:
The Islamic State has warned the United States that it plans to attack America and raise "the flag of Allah in the White House."
"I say to America that the Islamic caliphate has been established," Abu Mosa, a spokesman for the terror group, also known as ISIS, told Vice Media in a video interview posted online Thursday.
"Don’t be cowards and attack us with drones. Instead send your soldiers, the ones we humiliated in Iraq. We will humiliate them everywhere, God willing, and we will raise the flag of Allah in the White House."
It's most indicative of this appalling situation that we can trust and rely upon the words of ISIS so much more than we will ever be able believe the dictator we twice inflicted upon ourselves.
I just hope, for their sake, that they can find sufficient room for the "flag of Allah" amongst all those "Mission Accomplished!" banners. If not, we know what they'll do instead.....
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