Courtesy of Mish.
Three Questions
- Of what real threat to US security was Saddam Hussein? The answer is none. Ever.
- Of what real threat to the US is Syrian president Bashar Assad? The answer is none.
- Is ISIS a threat? Obviously yes, but not to the degree imagined.
Formation of ISIS
US policy on Syria is centered on the removal of Assad in Syria even though Assad is no threat, but ISIS is.
And it was the bungled removal of Hussein that destabilized Iraq and directly led to the creation of ISIS.
In October, I noted former UK prime minister Tony Blair (who joined president Bush on the inane takeout of Saddam Hussein), Issued an Apology for Creation of ISIS.
Our allies ought to be those who want to fight ISIS, not alleged “moderate” Al Qaeda forces seeking to destabilize Syria, creating a refugee mess in the process.
Is Putin Our Ally in Syria?
Pat Buchanan asks (and correctly answers) the question Is Putin Our Ally in Syria?
The President’s strategy is to contain, degrade and defeat ISIS. While no one has provided the troops to defeat ISIS, the U.S. is using Kurdish and Yazidi forces, backed by U.S. air power, to degrade it.
The Kurds have run ISIS out of Kobani, captured much of the Turkish-Syrian border, and moved to within 30 miles of Raqqa, the ISIS capital. Yazidis and Kurds last week recaptured Sinjar in Iraq and cut the highway between Mosul and Raqqa.
The terrorist attacks in Paris, the downing of the Russian airliner in Sinai, the ISIS bomb that exploded in the Shiite sector of Beirut, are ISIS’s payback. But they could also be signs that the ISIS caliphate, imperiled in its base, is growing desperate and lashing out.
Yet consider the Republican strategies being advanced….
