CALL TO REPEAT THE BUSH MISTAKE

Most Americans know that the decision to invade Iraq and involve us in the Middle East was a grievous error. Although, we tend to credit what happened to George W. Bush, a small group of people tightly associated with but still outside of the Presidency wrote the Wolfowitz doctrine, which is what the president followed. This “doctrine” is a painfully imperialistic document. It had nothing to do with what most of us consider as American values. No one questions the fact that our invasion of Iraq was what resulted in the mess we have in the Middle East. ISIS is a direct result of that invasion. If people said, they believed we should repeat the mistake, no American, Canadian, European, or Russian would agree with them. To agree with what Bush did would be to say they not only want ISIS to form, but also they would want ISIS to achieve their goal, which is to create a massive Islamic State to counter the western world. The truth is there is a growing group, not only in the United States, but also in the world, who want to do exactly that. I listened to the critics of Presidents Obama’s speech, in fact, some are longtime critics of him, and what I hear is a call to repeat the terrible error we made in the Middle East during the Bush years. The recent bombing in Paris returned the call to do that back to the headlines. To make my point, restate that in this way, the media headlines are stimulating us to do what ISIS wants us the to do. It is more than Wolfowitz. Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain are influential people who are calling on us to invade the Middle East. The Republican presidential candidates dutifully line up behind them. I was shocked to hear the presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton, say essentially the same thing. They are the new Wolfowitz. Our president has worked hard to develop and is following a winning strategy. The same policy he defended in his recent speech against an onslaught of reporter “got you” questions. The conflict is between his intellectual approach and a bestial approach, which is instinctual and not well thought-out; if someone hits you, you strike back. The old trope, “an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind”. ISIS drew our blood; therefore, we need to spill their blood. The Obama approach is a slow methodical long lasting solution. Obama’s policy involves a wide coalition of nations as put together by Sec. Kerry. The aim of his policy is to have the populations in the Muslim Middle East slowly fold ISIS back into Islam and all indications are that his policy is working. The only thing wrong with his strategy is that it isn’t instantaneous like a big military attack that lasts as long at the attacks lasts. It does not leave a trail of dead and mutilated bodies in its wake as bomb, bomb, McCain followers would like to see or as my tough sounding animal like friend wants to do, gather them up and kill them all because eight of them killed people in Paris. Of course, they are talking about 1.7 billion Muslims; “Kill them all and let God sort them out”. Obama wants us all to live in peace; there is a big difference. URL: firetreepub.blogspot.com Comments Invited and not moderated