Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Seems to me the reason the west is going after Isis, is because they're a direct threat to the government of Iraq. That wonderful democracy we created??? It's another last ditch effort to fend of the inevitable collapse of Iraq into 3 separate nation states and save face.
I have no clue how the west fixes what we've already screwed up there. Do we use the general Patton model and go all in, or completely leave? The problem is, we won't do either because we're so entrenched militarily, politically, and economically, that the status quo will go on into perpetuity and it will be whack-a-mole of batting jihadists who we [censored] off.
This has been my question all along, to what end are we doing this?
Half stepping isn't going to cut it. There has to be a clear objective but defining that that be a big problem in itself.
Do we have the intelligence resources left in the region to accurately determine what we up against? Where will this place Assad, in a strengthened or weakened position?
Will the Russians take advantage of this whole fiasco and finally make a big move on Ukraine?
Do the American public and more importantly for the politicians the voters have the stomach for another military action in the middle east?
I fear the US does not have the leadership necessary for a problem of this magnitude, we have a CIC who refuses to call a spade a spade, a war a war, and terrorist violence is considered workplace violence.
This isn't going to work the way its being playes, it is a recipe for a real fiasco.