“Obama to Deepen America’s Military Role In Mideast”

That Associated Press headline tells you pretty much all you need to know about the utter collapse of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. It was Obama’s uncompromising opposition to military action in the Middle East, particularly Iraq, that won him the presidential nomination six years ago. Now, he has no choice but to deal with reality:

In a major reversal, President Barack Obama is moving to deepen the U.S. military role in the volatile Middle East, including training and arming Syrian rebels to fight Islamic State militants and potentially expanding airstrikes across the Iraqi border into Syria. …

Obama’s plans amount to a striking shift for a president who has steadfastly sought to wind down American military campaigns in the Middle East and avoid new wars.

Of course, Obama will tell us tonight that we have always been at war with Eastasia.

Adamantly opposed to putting American combat troops on the ground, Obama will call for increased training of Iraqi security forces and the provision of arms shipments to vetted Syrian opposition fighters in order to help both groups in their fight against the militants.

The claim that we are not supplying ground forces will be Obama’s fig leaf, even though news reports indicate that American troops are already advising or serving with Iraqi forces. The real question is, what will he do when it becomes obvious that a substantial army like ISIS’s cannot be defeated, or even long deterred, by air strikes.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses