I urge you to listen carefully for anything that convinces you that his war on terrorism (against ISIS) will be any more successful than Bush’s ill-fated war on terrorism (against al-Qaeda). Just be mindful that JFK convinced the American people that his war on communism (in Vietnam) would be more successful than his predecessor Truman’s war on communism (in Korea). And beware that a stupid war by any other name (like “a counterterrorism operation”) would still prove as stupid….
(“Demystifying ISIS: Case against Obama’s Bush-lite War on Terrorism,” The iPINIONS Journal, September 10, 2014)
President Obama made quite a show on September 10 of announcing his grand strategy to combat Daesh terrorists. Not because they were attacking (or even plotting to attack) the United States mind you, but because they were killing fellow Muslims in the latest crucible of Islam’s thousand-year sectarian war.
Here in part is how I pooh-poohed his strategy (hours before he formally announced it) in my commentary cited above:
Warmongers … have already goaded Obama into a Vietnam-style mission creep — given that the 300 troops he said in June were sufficient to protect embassy personnel in Iraq have already mushroomed to over 1000, not including an untold number of military ‘advisers.’
If the Afghans and Iraqis Americans spent over a decade training to govern themselves, defend themselves, and sustain themselves can’t stand on their own against a rag-tag bunch of Taliban fighters and rampaging ISIS terrorists, respectively, then they deserve whatever fate befalls them. To say nothing of the dreadful spectacle of so many of those the U.S. trained either turning their guns directly on U.S. troops — in now notorious ‘green-on-blue’ killings, or using that training to professionalize the ranks of terrorist groups like ISIS.
Incidentally, Obama is making quite a show of seeking congressional authorization to train ‘moderate’ Syrian fighters as part of his war on terrorism strategy. But, consistent with the foregoing, nothing betrays the wishful thinking inherent in this quite like the shameful (and ultimately sacrificial) way thousands of U.S.-trained Iraqi fighters threw down their U.S.-made weapons, abandoned their U.S.-made military vehicles, and hightailed it from just a few hundred poorly equipped ISIS fighters.
By the way, the reason I pooh-poohed it with such foreboding indignation is that, despite his protestations to the contrary, I knew when Obama announced his 300-troop redeployment in June that he’d be redeploying more … and more – as I cynically argued in “Why Have 300 Troops When 3000 Will Do?” June 20, 2014.
Now comes this:
President Obama authorized Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel on Friday to send up to 1,500 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, roughly doubling the force the United States has built up since June to fight the Islamic State militants who control much of Iraq and Syria.
The announcement of a major increase in the U.S. force in Iraq deepens U.S. involvement in a messy regional conflict that officials are warning may last for years. The White House said it would request $5.6 billion for the military campaign against the Islamic State, including $1.6 billion to train and equip Iraqi troops.
(Washington Post, November 7, 2014)
Hence my analogy to Vietnam; after all, Obama is conducting the vietnamization of this conflict by the book (i.e., emulating JFK’s original march of folly in textbook fashion). And all indications are that, even though not nearly as formidable a fighting force as the Viet Cong, Daesh terrorists will prove every bit as vexing and unconquerable (their greatest weapon being their fanatical ideology of anti-Western hatred).
Hell, even the warmongering former Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain, is voicing misgivings about this fight:
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reflected on his days of service in the Vietnam War in a radio interview on Tuesday, Veterans Day. McCain, a former naval aviator and prisoner of war, voiced concern that the U.S. may be heading down a similar path in Iraq and Syria as it did in Vietnam.
(Huffington Post, November 11, 2014)
Yet nothing damns Obama’s folly in this context quite like Yemen looking more like Iraq today. Recall that he hailed Yemen a few months ago for the type of successful counterterrorism partnership the United States is attempting to establish in Iraq.
Except that:
‘This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years,’ Obama said on Sept. 10, in a marquee speech outlining his strategy to combat the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria.
Now the administration is conceding that one of those bright spots may go dark, which could serve as further ammunition for critics who say Obama has mishandled the volatile region.
On Thursday, a leading general said that Yemen – which has been a ready and willing ally in the United States’ drone war against al Qaeda – may soon fall off the list of U.S. partners, a consequence of a brewing civil war in which the Obama administration has been loath to involve itself, and that most U.S. media has largely ignored.
(Huffington Post, November 7, 2014)
But never mind history repeating itself; because, frankly, it takes a willful suspension of disbelief for Obama to think that 1500 troops and $5 billion will be enough to train and equip Iraqi troops in a 10 months, when 150,000 troops and $1.5 trillion proved insufficient to do so in 10 years.
How fitting, though, that he chose to double down on this latest march of folly into war on the very weekend when the entire world was marking the futile loss of blood and treasure World War I wrought.
Happy Veterans Day? Try Hapless Veterans Day!
Related commentaries:
Demystifying Daesh…