Good news until it’s not. This admin has been so wrong on so many things. Also, these people have to go somewhere and IS has no intention of stopping their advance. It’s only a matter of time until they’re cornered again.
Nail, meet hammer. If most of the refugees have left the mountain, where did they go? ISIS still controls the area around the mountain, so Christians and Yazidis who leave the high ground will face the same deprivations that forced them to flee in the first place.
In fact, their departure is (yet) another stinging rebuke of Hobama. They had been waiting for the U.S. to take the lead and get them from the mountain to a safe haven (probably in Kurdish territory), but all we did was drop humanitarian aid. The Yazidis and Christians, like many around the world, have discovered that the U.S. in a completely unreliable partner and you may be better off facing the terrorists on your own, rather than waiting for Uncle Sam.
Also, the “report” from our SOF teams on conditions among the refugees seems devoid of one salient fact: how many have died on that mountain, and how many more may soon pass away due to exposure, starvation, thirst, etc.
I have no doubt the SF personnel who conducted the survey did a professional job. But I also get the feeling their report got “massaged” as it moved up the chain of command, to build a case against wider military effort.