DEVELOPING: President Obama Authorizes Limited Air Strikes to Facilitate Humanitarian Relief in Kurdish Iraq - Vows No Boots on the Ground Military Renewal of Iraq War... In a televised speech Thursday night, Obama threatened to renew U.S. military involvement. At the same time, he announced that U.S. military planes already had carried out airdrops of food and water, at the request of the Iraqi government, to tens of thousands of Iraqi religious minorities atop a mountain surrounded by militants and desperately in need of supplies. America is coming to help, Obama declared. The Yazidis, who follow an ancient religion with ties to Zoroastrianism, fled their homes after the Islamic State group issued an ultimatum to convert to Islam, pay a religious fine, flee their homes or face death. (From: MSN) But,...already: the wagging heads of the American punditry; the armchair generals; and the ex-military analysts-for-hire are offering up their assorted tsk-tsks - over the current, developing crisis in Kurdish Iraq. President Obama was forced to assent to limited air strikes in support of humanitarian relief effort for upwards of 50,000 people that most Americans never heard of - threatened with certain death, either through starvation or massacre at the hands of a growing Sunni extremist force, ISIL, too bloodthirsty and extreme even for Al Qaeda! Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill (while Congress is on a five-week vacation), the leader of the loyal opposition is already attacking THIS president - something virtually unheard of under prior administrations (Democrat OR Republican) where such partisan politics in time of emerging crisis SHOULD and usually HAS stopped at the waters edge... House Speaker John Boehner on Friday called U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants “appropriate,” but criticized the White House for being disengaged on the Iraq issue. “The president’s authorization of airstrikes is appropriate,” the Ohio Republican said in a statement, “but like many Americans, I am dismayed by the ongoing absence of a strategy for countering the grave threat ISIS poses to the region,” he said, in reference to an alternative name for ISIL. (From: Politico) How quickly the naysayers (Left and Right) forget that it was the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld cabal of Neocons who screwed the pooch in 2003, when they invaded Iraq to depose sectarian tyrant Saddam Hussein...under false pretenses,...with no concern for destabilizing the entire region and the fragile balance of power which had largely kept the lid on exactly what we are now witnessing! AND,...with NO cogent military or diplomatic strategy for the long term future of Iraq or the Middle East,...apart from a delusional pipe dream of democratization of foreign lands! The seeds of the next war are nearly always sown in the last ~ common sense wisdom, espoused by most historians. So now, after dropping two laser guided 500-lb bombs to take out ISIL artillery pieces threatening our relief efforts; the Kurds (historically our strongest allies in the region) must ponder the threat to their region and organize what is sure to be a staunch defense of their territory! President Obama is faced with the more immediate task of protecting the unprotected - now facing starvation or slaughter, as well as protecting our own diplomatic mission in the Kurdish Capital of Erbil...lest it be overrun and another Tripoli-type event occur. One which the Far Right would surely seize on and use to further attack the President of the United States,...apparently the only enemy they can all agree to hate. >:(
Posted on: Fri, 08 Aug 2014 17:37:07 +0000
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