UNDERSTANDING STRATEGY IN IRAQ

The President has authorized sending 450 more troops to Iraq. There was an up cry from the right and in some cases even from the left: Vietnam again, etc., etc. He claims he has no strategy in Iraq and will not have one until the Iraqi government can take part in it. However, the news media missed the point of the story, which reminds me that the situation in the Middle East is complex but so is the president’s personality. As an intellectual, he will not claim to have a strategy until he has completed his plans. In contrast, the right wing in the name of people like Lindsey Graham and John McCain, have a completely worked out approach. It is to escalate the war. I hear military advisors as guests on TV shows applaud them. Like all generals, these armchair TV generals know if they have enough weapons and a huge army, they can beat every opposing force in the world, which is the truth until you get to Vietnam. Back off for a minute at look at what the president did. He is sending troops to advise Sunni factions in a country with and the Iraqi government. While it is true it may not work out, the effort is to create a unified Iraqi. That is, he wants to create a democratic but not sectarian government; a government in which there is a separation of church and state. Everyone knows this is the basis of the Arab spring; a growing faction of people in the Middle East countries that want shed themselves of Caliphates. They want to take the power from Religious leaders and give it to the people. Counter to all logic, people such as John McCain oppose them doing this. They want to unite the Muslims factions by proving the United States as their common enemy, which is just the opposite of what our President is trying to do. President Obama is trying to direct the various Sunni and Shia radical groups to fighting one another’s extremes. Iraq is a black hole of such great proportions that it will make Vietnam look like child’s play. Candidate Lindsey Graham says we need 10,000 troops; that is an escalation. For the news media to imply 450 advisers are equivalent to 10,000 is so obviously foolish it signals the one who are making that comparison do not understand what is happening, which is there for all to see. I supposed the president would feel foolish to have to explain to grown politicians what is so obvious even a child should be able to see it. When he said, no US boots on the ground in Iraq has real meaning. Of course, the President could be wrong to think he can change what is so fundamental to culture. Religion has been at the heart of human strife since the beginning of natural history. However, I am going with our President because I have not heard a more viable suggestion for dealing with the problem of religious disputes. Stephen Pinker’s 2011 book, The Better Angels of Our Nature; Why Violence Hs Decline, has meticulously explained why the time is ripe for such a move. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated