● Islam Is The Root Cause: It’s funny how liberals love talking about root causes when it comes to crime or domestic violence or poverty, but somehow it’s anathema and racist to talk about it when it comes to Islamic terrorism. ISIL like al Qaeda and the thousands of other Islamic terrorist groups have continued to show that Islam breeds terrorists. There is no denying this. Hundreds of thousands of Islamists have joined these groups with the intention of hurting, killing and maiming innocent and unsuspecting people all in the name of spreading Islam by fear and force.
● Backing Into A Corner: Team Obama is really backing themselves into a corner on this ISIL issue. For years now, they have denied that al Qaeda or Iran or anything else really poses any threat to the United States or her people. Yet, this past week, various Obama team members, including Defense Secretary Hagel, played up ISIL as “something we’ve never seen before” and “more dangerous than al Qaeda.”
This is bizarre. Team Obama are literally backing themselves into a corner where they will have no choice but to start a ground war to eliminate ISIL. Indeed, it’s impossible for Obama to make ISIL out as an existential threat to the United States and the free world and then do nothing about them. And don’t forget, this isn’t a group he can sanction with any credibility.
● Elitist Priorities: It’s funny to me that the left always attacked Bush and Bush and Reagan for not caring about “real” people but instead only acting when the interests of their friends were at stake. So what are we supposed to make of this? Until ISIL decided to kill a journalist, Team Obama completely downplayed the threat from ISIL. Sure, they had taken over 1/3 of Iraq and a good chunk of Syria, but they were nothing but a group of thugs who would soon fail once the Iraqis got their act together. This wasn’t our problem.
Then they killed a journalist... a sacred journalist... and suddenly Team Obama springs into action: “This is an outrage! This is unheard of! They’re worse than Hitler!” What kind of statement is that? “Gee, so sorry all you dead Iraqi Christians and you wrong kind of Muslims, sorry all you girls who lost your human rights, but all of you together do not add up to the worth of the life of a single journalist.” This is what caring about real people is supposed to look like?
● Stop With The Money: One of the things Hagel said was that ISIL is better at fund raising than al Qaeda ever was. He links their funding to their threat level. As I’ve pointed out many times before, I find this to be intensely stupid thinking. It doesn’t take money to be a great terrorist. I can cause more chaos in this country than al Qaeda ever did with just a good set of tools. This idea that it takes money to rain destruction on a country is silly
● Cover-Up: Finally, I don’t think ISIL is any worse than al Qaeda, but I think Team Obama is pushing this line because he doesn’t want to be the president who let Iraq become a failed terrorist state. Hence, he’s planning to send in the troops. And the only way he thinks he can justify that while still pretending that Bush’s invasion was inappropriate it to pretend that something bigger and more dangerous has invaded Iraq than what caused Bush to go to war in Iraq. Ergo, his decision was smart and justified whereas Bush was being stupid.
Thoughts?
Interesting theory. I don't think Obama is stupid enough to send ground troops back into Iraq. People in some corners of the internet hyperventilate about foreign casualties, but a stream of American bodybags coming home would be a much bigger deal.
ReplyDeleteOn a related note, I think the relevant detail about the journalist is that he was a relatively high profile American. Lots of foreigners die in lots of third world countries. Americans feel bad about that, but not so bad they fight wars to prevent it. There usually has to be a national interest motive mixed in somewhere. I'm not seeing that here.
Lucky for us, most Americans who have joined the terror groups (a disproportionate amount of Somalis) have converted abroad, stayed abroad and died abroad. Sadly, I doubt we're going to be blessed by the idiocy of our enemies forever.
ISIS strikes me as more like the Taliban than Al Queda at this point. The Taliban are murderous nutcases, but America and the world would have let do whatever the heck they wanted to do in Afghanistan (and Pakistan and Kashmir, India) if they hadn't sheltered Al Queda after 9/11.
Anthony, you're forgetting that casualty numbers don't make the news during Democrat administrations. And whatever Obama chooses to start, it will be the next Republican's job to finish, and responsibility from day one will rest on his shoulders.
ReplyDeleteI think ISIS is worse than al Queda, especially since al Queda kicked these guys out for being too extreme.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting article this weekend in WSJ about how the Syrian government is partially to blame for this rise. They allowed them and didn't fight them so that they would eliminate the government's biggest foe. It worked except instead of a group that they probably could negotiate with they have the equivalent of a rabid dog.
Why don't we start simple but getting the Turks and Kurds involved? Some money and a few weapons would go along way. ISIS is also collecting about $1 million/day in oil revenue. Let's turn that off. Sort of ironic that they are funding their hate the civilized world campaign by collecting revenue from the civilized world. Let's get the Chinese involved with us; they hate extremist Muslims as much or more than we do. Same with the Indians.
"And whatever Obama chooses to start, it will be the next Republican's job to finish, and responsibility from day one will rest on his shoulders."
ReplyDeleteAnd he will get the blame for starting it and no credit for ending it. (cough — Nixon — cough)
Anthony, I agree that Obama doesn't want to send troops, but I think he's not going to have a choice with his defense department and state department playing these guys up as an existential threat. Also, keep in mind that he's already dropped bombs on them and sent around 300 soldiers to do whatever in Iraq. I guess we'll see, but to me, the tea leaves suggest American troops.
ReplyDeleteOn the journalists, it's true that it's easier to get the public worked up about someone more famous. Still, I find it interesting that Obama doesn't seem outraged until a journalist gets killed. So much for the left's claim to care about the common man instead a choice elite.
P.S. I think it was a mistake to conflate the Taliban, who are basically local thugs fighting a civil war, with al Qaeda, who are an outward focused terrorist group. In this case though, everything I see suggests that ISIL has a much broader focus that just this region. They want to take over a large part of the Middle East, Eurasia and Europe.
ReplyDeletetryanmax, Very true. If a Republican wins in 2016, the MSM will make into their war and suddenly you'll see daily combat death reports.. something that stopped cold once Bush left office.
ReplyDeleteKoshcat, Those are all very sensible ideas. In fact, I think that would be an excellent way to solve this problem. Both the Turks and the Kurds have a strong interest in stopping these guys, and with our weapons and some support, they should be able to defeat them. The Chinese are trickier, but they might be willing to help. The other group that could help would be the Iranians, but that would require a much larger rapprochement.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the oil too. That should be a no-brainer.
Kit, Nixon is right. I'm shocked whenever I run into liberals who honestly claim that Nixon started Vietnam. Shocking.
ReplyDeleteI say, let loose the Mossad and IDF. Everyone hates Israel and the Jews anyway, so let them do what they do best...taking out terrorist groups that threaten everyone's existence. Just like in 1981 when the IDF took out Saddam's nuclear plant to the public condemnation (but private giant regional/global "thank you"). We can all hate them publicly and thank them privately for being willing to unequivocally step up when the rest of the world (i.e. Obama) wavers and wrings their hands about civilian casualties and legacies. War is hell, but someone has to do it.
ReplyDeleteDon't trust the Iranians.
The bottom line is that we either need to fully commit or fully back off. We can't afford to spitball just to make Obama or anyone else feel better about themselves. And as we are finding out, many of the ISIL members are Caucasian Europeans, so the EU needs to step up or let them blow up for all I care. They have created this problem as much as anyone.
And dissolve the UN, they are useless. They serve no purpose in "uniting nations". If anything, their headquarters should be moved out of NY and right smack dab in the middle of the Middle East.
The bottom line - We are damned if we do and we are damned if we don't. I choose being damned for doing something.
/end rant.
Kissinger was actually awarded the Nobel freakin Peace Prize for his work at the Paris Peace Accords in the early-70s.
ReplyDeleteBev, Excellent rant!!
ReplyDeleteDon't trust the Iranians.
Couldn't agree more. They are lunatics.
The bottom line is that we either need to fully commit or fully back off.
Totally agree on this too. The worst thing we can do right now is to talk these people up as something important and then do nothing about it or do something half-assed that lets them claim they survived the best the US had to offer. Unfortunately, I'm not sure Obama gets this. His actions have a dizzying contradictory sense to them.
In term of Israel, I doubt that Israel would be up for an all-out war to clean out Iraq.
Kit, Yeah, but Nixon was evil.
ReplyDeleteKit - Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize too. So was Yasser Arafat and Al Gore. However Kissinger will be the one who "didn't deserve it" because of the taint of Nixon who started the Vietnam War...
ReplyDeletebecause of the taint of Nixon who started the Vietnam War... and ate the last unicorn.
ReplyDelete