Obama is picking his targets in Iraq and Syria while missing the point
“We are now living in what we might as well admit is the Age of Iraq,” New York Times op ed columnist David Brooks recently wrote. There, in the Land of the Two Rivers, he continued, the United States confronts the “core problem” of our era “the interaction between canada goose outlet online uk failing secular governance canada goose outlet in vancouver and radical Islam.”
Canada Goose Outlet Brooks canada goose outlet vancouver is wrong. For starters, he misconstrues the core problem which is a global conflict pitting tradition against modernity. Canada Goose Outlet
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canada goose coats This conflict did not originate in nor does it emanate from Iraq. So to say that we live in the Age of Iraq is the equivalent of saying we canada goose outlet price live in the Age of Taylor Swift or the Age of Google. The characterization serves chiefly to canada goose outlet germany distract attention from more important matters. presidents have fastened on canada goose outlet black friday that benighted country as a place to demonstrate the implacable onward march of modernity. forces after a lengthy occupation of Iraq Washington policymakers, canada goose outlet online store review Republican and Democratic, relied on various forms of coercion to canada goose outlet orlando align Iraq with American expectations of how a country ought to run. canada goose coats
Now here is Barack Obama, elected president in 2008 canada goose outlet phone number largely because he promised to end the Iraq war, back for another bite at the apple. A small bite since Obama’s canada goose outlet parka aversion to large scale intervention on the ground will largely canada goose outlet boston restrict the U. S. effort to aerial bombardment supplemented with canada goose outlet london uk a bit of advice and equipment. bombs and missiles than on the effectiveness and motivation of surrogate forces fighting on the ground. Identifying willing and able proxies is like to pose a challenge.
The Iraqi security forces, created by the United States at such great cost, have shown neither fight canada goose outlet real nor skill. Though the Kurdish peshmerga have a better reputation, their primary mission is to defend Kurdistan, not canada goose outlet in toronto to purge Iraq as a whole of invaders. The Syrian army is otherwise occupied and politically toxic.
The countries that ought to care more than the United States simply because they are more immediately threatened by Islamic State fighters Iran, Turkey, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia have not demonstrated a commensurate willingness to act.
Canada Goose Jackets The best hope of success may lie in the possibility that Islamic State militants will overplay their hand their vile and vicious tactics alienating erstwhile collaborators and allies, much as the behavior of al Qaeda in Iraq alienated Sunni warlords during the famous U. S. surge of 2007 2008. Canada Goose Jackets
Canada Goose online This much is certain, however: Even if Obama cobbles together a plan to destroy the Islamic State, the problems bedeviling the Persian Gulf and the greater Middle East more broadly won’t be going away anytime soon. Canada Goose online
canada goose deals Destroying what Obama calls the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant won’t create an effective and legitimate Iraqi state. It won’t restore canada goose outlet location the possibility of a democratic Egypt. It won’t dissuade Saudi Arabia from funding jihadists. It won’t pull canada goose outlet near me Libya back from the brink of anarchy. It won’t end the Syrian civil war. It won’t bring peace and harmony to Somalia and Yemen. It won’t persuade the Taliban to lay down their arms in Afghanistan. It won’t buy canada goose uk end the perpetual crisis of Pakistan. It certainly won’t resolve the Israeli Palestinian canada goose outlet edmonton conflict. canada goose deals
All the military power in the world won’t solve those problems. Obama knows that. Yet he is allowing himself to be drawn back into the very war that he once correctly denounced as stupid and unnecessary mostly because he and his advisers don’t know what else to do. Bombing has become his administration default option.
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PHOTO (TOP): President Barack Obama makes remarks on the situation in Syria, at the Rose Garden of canada goose outlet 2015 the White House in Washington, August 31, 2013. military camp Brassfield Mora in Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, November 18, 2008. REUTERS/Sabah al Bazee
canada goose store PHOTO (INSERT 2): Smoke rises after what activists say was an air strike by forces loyal to Syria President Bashar al Assad on Tal Abyad street market in central Raqqa,September 6, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer canada goose store
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In my provincial view, if Egypt, the House of Saud, the Persians, and the Turks don see a pressing need to engage in this fight, then this https://www.canadagoosejacketonlines.ca FL Republican voter utterly fails to see where we American have any real interest in this affair.
Further to the point, I hope Congress comes to their senses and quickly reins our President in because the longer he focuses on his only area canada goose outlet legit of influence, the greater the chance of his misstep resulting in tragic military misadventure.
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buy canada goose jacket I never voted for Obama. However, I have to give him credit for his Middle Eastern policy. In his Cairo speech he spoke of individualism and freedom. It was a message rarely given in that area of the world. The Arab Spring came shortly afterwards. I not giving canada goose outlet usa him sole credit, but his posture certainly didn hurt. buy canada goose jacket
canada goose countries that ought to care more than the United States simply because they are more immediately threatened by Islamic State fighters Iran, Turkey, Egypt and even Saudi Arabia have not demonstrated a commensurate willingness to act. And how do you canada goose outlet store new york get them to act? By pushing them out of the way and putting boots on the ground? They will always choose to use us to fight their battles. It cheaper and maintains their interests. You have to allow the situation to become existential to them. The ones most threatened will move up and take action. Obama is playing the situation correctly. Time to get these people used to fighting their own battles, which will give them the social conditions to co exist canada goose outlet factory and canada goose outlet new york city move peaceably forward. You can provide that externally. It must come about through struggle and necessity. canada goose
canada goose black friday sale This isn about tradition and modernity. It about self determination vs entrenched interests. It about the corruption that we have fostered, willfully or not, through a hundred years of a misguided foreign policy. canada goose black friday sale
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Canada Goose Parka I agree with the paragraph near the end that destroying the IS won solve all the other problems in that region. I can canada goose outlet store near me honestly think of anything that will solve those problems. However, despite Mr. Bacevich apparent knowledge of the situation, he doesn offer a useful alternative. If not arial bombardment, then what? Is he suggesting we send in more ground troops? He right that getting anyone else in the region to join the fight in a meaningful way is a futile exercise. He rightly critical of our efforts over the past two decades I think we wasted lives canada goose outlet online store and money with no good results Canada Goose Parka.