Getting Our War On

Folks, it's turning out to be a fait accompli that Barack Obama is going to re-invade Iraq and quite possibly cross the eastern border of Syria in order to clobber ISIL, ISIS, IS, whatever we are calling them this week. For once, we have an adversary whose crimes are evident and obvious, requiring our immediate attention. A coalition is forming as I type this; John Kerry is searching for allies that have common cause to waste the IS. These geeks, these religious scum, are murderers of considerable degree and would very much like to expand their wave of terror by feasting on our oil. That's when the gloves come off, when they touch the oil, you see. I believe it is time to stop the disgusting group's sprawl now for humanitarian reasons. As Obama has noted, IS has no place in the 21st century. Stopping them in their tracks would be easy if we go in with overwhelming force, as per the Powell Doctrine. No one agrees that air power will punish IS enough to keep them from advancing.

I know what it's like to go to a bullshit war. I am a veteran of OIF. I spent a year in Iraq bringing medical supplies to combat hospitals. The work I did there was fulfilling, but the reasons for the war were bankrupt. Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. We rent apart Iraq, and for what? So Dick Cheney and his cabal of oil peddlers could divvy up the country's resources? 'Cause that's all we achieved in Iraq. We tried to rebuild an entire way of life for the newly rudderless state. And now that way of life is disintegrating, as many wonks predicted. The military, the voting, and the currency is worthless. IS has stepped into the void. Now from what I understand, IS is winning hearts and minds by fielding hospitals and providing basic services like other shifty groups like Hamas and Hezbollah do.

President Obama has stated "no ground troops in Syria". I may be wrong on that one. What I am growing increasingly confident in is that we can still send troops to Iraq. We can't sit back and watch these monsters behead and kill indiscriminately. We have the tools necessary to win. But we have to want victory on behalf of the Iraqis. We will probably go in for the oil, but at this point I don't care what pretense we use to return. The Iraqis I knew were industrious, caring, and lots of laughs. I don't want to see IS happen to them.