Dear America,
I don't know why I am still surprised when a Republican's strategy for political gain is to heap more of the same on a pile of more of the same. This week, President Obama agreed to send another 450 more "advisors" to Iraq to train Iraqi soldiers--as if nearly fifteen years of continual training, not to mention fighting their battles, weren't enough--but continues to insist that we will no longer fight in Iraq. John Boehner, the poster boy for political hacks, gratuitously commented that, while he approves of the move, the President still does not have an "overall strategy" for defeating ISIS. And The President was no surprise either when he made no comment, though the comment he should have made is obvious; we have no strategy because it isn't our war to fight, and until the Iraqi army is willing at least to fight for itself...especially when they outnumber their enemy by a hundred to one...money and a token force of trainers and body guards are all we are going to give them. Iraq just isn't our war anymore, and as to Syria, it isn't ours either. I think that most of the American public sees that, and would gladly join in a pejorative chorus of boos directed toward Boehner and the Republican "gotcha" brigade for trying to gin up some criticism of that policy, which is the very strategy that Boehner was bemoaning the absence of. Boehner, John McCain and Mitch McConnell are so predictably and mindlessly partisan that their stale moves shouldn't be surprising anymore, but somehow I am always caught off guard when they break out their foot shooting pistol and fire off a round.
Of course, I am always surprised when President Obama says nothing about the Republicans' advocated follies instead of confronting them head on when that seems to be his only modus operandi: silent mode. If I were advising him, I would suggest that he just ask a simple question of, in this instance, Boehner: what is your suggestion. Outside of invading the middle-east again fourteen years after the last disastrous decision to do so, what does he think we should do that we aren't doing, that's what I would like to know. If he shoots back, "I'm not the commander-in- chief," my response would be, "That's right, so why don't you just get back in line and support the one who is commander-in-chief...either that or come up with something other than, we need a strategy and I don't have one, but yours isn't it." And speaking of silence, what about the rest of the middle-east. If I were advising President Obama, I would suggest a conference call to the the grand poobah of Iran, the Kings of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the President of Turkey, whoever controls the Kurds and their peshmerga, and even Prime Minister Bibi of Israel and tell them that until ISIL gets ICBM's and a huge navy, the battle in the middle-east isn't ours, and we won't be fighting it for them. They should all see that, at least in this instance, setting aside animosities that are as much as two millenniums old and applying their resources together to make short work of ISIL is the only strategy that will prevail. And after the phone call, which should last no more than sixty seconds, I would play a tape of it for the world, including the President of Iraq, whom I would call separately. To him I would say that he'd better find a way to prevent Shiites from massacring Sunnis with impunity, or he should probably flee because the Sunnis and ISIL will be at his office in ten minutes looking for the next head to chop off. Without Sunni support, there is no hope for Iraq other than partitioning the country, which may be the best idea anyway, and if that happens, the political hacks who run Iraq now will all be without jobs to wear their suits and neckties to. It'll be back to burkas and tribal politics for them, just like everyone else.
Maybe all this is too simple an explanation of the best strategy for the United States to follow, the bottom line is that ISIL has "boots on the ground" and someone else has to too. It just won't be us this time. Just as with John Boehner, I may not be right, but unless you have a better idea...
Your friend,
Mike
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