Discussion for article #227145
ISILās actions donāt deserve a response. Especially not a military response that plays right into their narrative of persecution, and would mostly kill innocents anyways.
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How much of this is driven by the beheading of American Journalists, horrible as those are, or driven by the fear that trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives were essentially wasted in the Iraq War? I guess a bit of bothā¦
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Why do these politicians never stop to ask āAnd then what?ā when they make these bloodthirsty proposals. Any student of military history should know that you donāt go into an armed conflict without knowing what the end game will look like. Bombing people just to see what will happen is not a strategy.
If anyone in the Cheney administration had bothered to ask āAnd then what?ā and had a realistic answer before deciding to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, we wouldnāt be in this mess now.
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Good. I hope the Senate debates this bill.
I would vote to give this President unlike Bush the authority to do whatever he needed to rid us of this menace.
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Whatever strategy the President comes up with may require bombing inside of Syria. Just because he has the authority doesnāt mean he has to use it.
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Thats it Senator make all of congress have skin in the game.
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I remember hearing the same thing said about the authorization to use military force in Iraq. Of course, weāre not dealing with the incompetence of Dubya here, but if there is authorization, it will likely be used. The idea of bombing ISIS may be very attractive, but there are many other factors involved in the Syria situation. The most likely beneficiary of the bombing of ISIS would be Assad, just as the greatest beneficiary of the removal of Saddam was Iran.
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I donāt know if that can be helped. Iāve seen stories that suggest Assad planned it that way by focusing his attention on the lesser imps and demons instead of engaging ISIS. We may have to deal with that problem when we broker a peace deal.
The immediate problem is ISIS. Cut their Saudi, Qatari and Kuwaiti funding, cut their channels to the oil black market and cut their supply routes. Seal them up tighter than Dickās hat band and let them try to run their Islamic State without staples like milk, rice and cooking oil. Thirty percent of the businesses in Mosul are already closed because they lack commodities.
Surely the NSA has the phone numbers of some of the more moderate fighters inside of the area controlled by ISIS, there are six million people there. Call them up, have a chat.
Edit to add: I wouldnāt kill Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi with a drone or missile strike, Iād let the Iraqi people have that pleasure.
ISIS lives off publicity. Iāve never seen a more PR driven āmovementā: media used to terrorize everyone using the movie villain stereotypes we know so well. Of course, they actually do what the movies only simulate. But I really hesitate to click on ISIS/ISIL news, because that is what they feed on.
P.S. Senator Nelson, and all other back seat drivers ā I thought that is what Obama was already doing with the airstrikes. And heās gotten the Iraqi government on the ball. Someone over at VOX complains that he treats the situation like a āprofessorā and doesnāt have enough excitement in his actions. In other words: ISIS knows how the media should be handled, Obama doesnāt?
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All I know is that I trust Obama on this.Obama is actually trying to have an actual plan unlike bush who wanted and executed an opened end war. Weather its one american or 3000 Americans we can not let this isis murder americans just because they are americans.
Air strikes have been working so far and they will work in syria too. A true shock and awe there would be no need of boots on the ground.
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Not so important that he would come back and ask for the vote ?
Weāll get around to it , maybe next week ?
This guy takes donations from the private prison industry in Florida.
So does Debbie Wasserman-Schultz
They donāt have to. They are only baiting Obama into acting rashly so they can pick at the carcass when he reaps the consequences of the results. Obama beheaded Al Qaeda with a calm reasoned approach and ISIS has to be hemmed in and liquidated by the locals. The worst thing he could do is get stuck in Mission Creep which would be the result of a McCain plan.
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great point! I mean its not like ISIS is killing thousands of innocent people alreadyā¦and hell bent on killing a lot more.
I think we need to come to terms with the fact that Assad is going nowhere unless the Syrian military orders it. Arming āthe Moderatesā was another idiotic McCain idea. These moderates should pull back so the Syrian army can focus on ISIS as they have more to fear from ISIS than Assad.
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In this case strategic bombing to soften up a land assault by the Iraqi forces, factionalized tho they are, seems to me the way to go. The Iraqi forces appear to be pulling together to resist the IS. Syria? To be dealt with later, and not pleasantly.
If weāre going to be in a never ending war in the Middle East, reinstitute the draft.
What would you suggest then? Hand wringing and āGee Iām sorry Mr ISILā ?
So since ISIS said they are beheading Americanās due to our airstrikeās, we must initiate airstrikeās fix this problem?
Isnāt it amazing how the oldest of men, with the least to lose are the first and the most petulant when it comes to shouting up a war wherein younger men will have to do the killing and eventually, the dying?