Dear Gary Johnson: This is Aleppo
And this: And this: And so much more. Assad. Barrel bombs. Chlorine gas. Is it coming back to you now? Continue reading Dear Gary Johnson: This is Aleppo
Category: Syria
How would you deal with ISIS?
How to deal with ISIS? The argument rages on. President Obama defends and is conducting a campaign of attrition, of slowly wearing down ISIS with limited airstrikes, limited ground troops, supplying and training allies on the ground, and diplomacy. Obviously not an all-out effort to crush the enemy. After all, they’re way over in the Middle … Continue reading How would you deal with ISIS?
Air strikes won’t defeat an ideology
Bravo, President Obama. Air strikes in Iraq and Syria, combined with military advisors on the ground are sure to destroy ISIS. Aren’t they? No, of course not. Because ISIS, like al Qaeda before it, is an ideology, not a finite army or nation. And an ideology cannot be crushed with air strikes. We can play … Continue reading Air strikes won’t defeat an ideology
Obama, ISIS, and John McCain
I watched President Obama’s speech tonight explaining his plan to deal with ISIS. I was not overly impressed. As he spoke about sending more equipment into Iraq to help them defend themselves and military advisors to train Iraqi soldiers, I couldn’t help thinking, Isn’t that exactly what we did before? We sent them all kinds … Continue reading Obama, ISIS, and John McCain
ISIS or ISIL, they’re still just terrorists
I was finally able to remember that ISIS, the jihadist group that’s rolling through Iraq now, stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Learned it well enough to type it without having to look it up every time (don’t count just now, when I originally typed Iran instead of Iraq). Then this afternoon I turned on the … Continue reading ISIS or ISIL, they’re still just terrorists
Iraq and the Pottery Barn rule
No sooner did the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) offensive in Iraq hit the headlines than a particular song refrain popped into my head: “You break it, you pay for it.” It was a ferocious earworm that I couldn’t identify and cannot get rid of. (I finally tracked it down. It’s from a song “You Break … Continue reading Iraq and the Pottery Barn rule