If you’ve been following the news coming out of Iraq during the past two days, then you already know how dire the situation is.
To recap – a band of radical Islamofacist militants calling itself ISIS (Islamic State if Iraq and Syria) has begun a coordinated series of attacks in the northern portion of Iraq. The cities of Mosul and Tikrit have already been captured. Over $400 million in Iraqi currency (and possibly gold bullion) has been stolen from the central bank in Mosul. US-made weapons and equipment have been commandeered from fleeing security forces. Hundreds of thousands of evacuees and refugees are now on the run. Scores of decapitated corpses of captured police and state security forces are said to be lining roads and highways. The militants are headed toward Baghdad, promising a bullet in the head for anyone who stands in their way.
Unsurprisingly, ISIS wants to re-establish the ancient Islamic “caliphate” that once stretched from Spain, through North Africa, and across the Middle East. Reportedly, they have already began enforcing barbaric fundamentalist Sharia in areas they have captured. They are, essentially, Taliban version 2.0.
There are a lot of things about this story that are worth discussing:
- Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was a prisoner of American forces in Iraq but was released when the Bucca prison camp was closed in 2009 at the direction of the Obama Administration. We knew he was a bad guy (an al-Qaeda point man who enjoyed kidnapping and executing individuals and even entire families) so why did we let him go?
- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack “I was elected to end wars, not start them” Obama is now looking at the possibility of US air strikes to aid beleaguered Iraqi security forces.
- VP Joe Biden’s smug optimism regarding our obviously premature and ill-advised troop withdrawal from Iraq:
“I am very optimistic about Iraq. I think it’s gonna be one of the great achievements of this administration. You’re gonna see 90,000 American troops come marchin’ home by the end of the summer. You’re gonna see a stable government in Iraq that is actually movin’ toward a representative government.“
- And finally, will Obama’s “Smart Diplomacy”TM – which includes such debacles as the “Arab Spring” in Egypt, Libya, Syria; the deterioration of relations with Israel; Russia/Ukraine; and now Iraq – lead to a much larger, more catastrophic era of warfare? “Peace” brought about by appeasement or attempting to negotiate with terrorists and tyrants has never proven to be successful. I think we’re right on track for some sort of WWIII in the very near future.
