I don’t know much about Iraq and can’t form an opinion on the US delivering air strikes there.
I do know, however, that these airstrikes have made an official and open invasion of Ukraine by Russia inevitable.
Putin can’t tolerate being left behind by Americans. If Obama goes to war, Putin will have to do the same.
I can only speak to what I know but if you have informed opinions on the airstrikes on Iraq, please share.
I don’t claim to know much about Iraq, but I am deeply suspicious of what we are being told. I feel like the news hasn’t really told us what ISIS actually is, who supports them, where they recruit from, who their allies are, etc. How is this band of fanatics getting so close to the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region? The Kurds supposedly have a very tough, well-equipped, professional fighting force, yet they’ve been pushed back and now ISIS is close to their capitol. Are the Kurds weaker than the media has told us? Does ISIS have allies defecting from the Iraqi and/or Syrian armies? None of this makes any sense.
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// I do know, however, that these airstrikes have made an official and open invasion of Ukraine by Russia inevitable… Putin can’t tolerate being left behind by Americans.
I find it hard to believe since
1. Sounds as if Putin has no strategy of his own besides: “If Americans jump from the roof, I’ll too.” He has to be smarter than that.
2. USA has intervened abroad a great deal for years. Why airstrikes on Iraq, and not something before or after?
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Putin was going to officially invade Ukraine all along, of course. But now he has the perfect way to sell it to his citizenry.
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Immediately after writing the previous comment, visited a news site and read about USA attacking ISIS in Iraq. Before, I thought you refered to the Iraq War after 9/11. Why put such weight on a few airstrikes now and not on the huge Iraq War, which destroyed the entire country of Iraq?
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People are worried that these airstrikes are a prelude to another round of war in Iraq. Obama was elected, in a huge part, based on his promise to withdraw from Iraq. And now he’s back in Iraq.
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Since Iraq as a state is already destroyed and ISIS is slaughtering people, can’t you think that in some cases bigger involvement against extremists may be necessary to prevent them affecting other countries? I am unsure what is the best for USA now, long-term. But the Iraq War being a mistake (to say the least) doesn’t make steps at this stage wrong by itself.
What angered me here is American approach of “we’ll destroy everything in that far-away place, and then go away and pretend it has nothing to do with us since we got tired of the war. Even if getting involved now 9not then!) could make things better for people there.”
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“But the Iraq War being a mistake (to say the least) doesn’t make steps at this stage wrong by itself.”
– I agree completely but I’m not knowledgeable about this situation at this point to take the reasoning any further.
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Hussein slaughtered Kurds after the first Gulf War. By most accounts, it was a disaster in a number of respects for the US to make no effort to protect them. While the current administration is perfectly able to create mistakes, it also has shown the ability to learn from the mistakes of others.
Had the US failed to act, that would have been a green light for Putin. However, if Putin escalates in Ukraine, this restates the clear risk that the US would deploy its air power in response. Further, the decision to use planes rather than cruise missles now means that the US is preserving the supply of these missles for “other” uses. I’m sure the Russian General Staff has noticed this.
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
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