Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Robinson: You know, we’re losing the fight against ISIS
Hot Air.com ^ | October 14, 2014 | ED MORRISEY

Posted on 10/14/2014 4:58:36 AM PDT by Kaslin

Hardest hit: Donna Brazile, who argued on Twitter this week that the criticism over the Obama administration’s handling of ISIS was just a scare tactic for the midterm elections. Eugene Robinson’s essay at the Washington Post shows that concern over the strategy in dealing with Iraq is not limited to one side of the political spectrum, although Robinson has a much different prescription for a strategy. Robinson first points out “the obvious”:

It’s not too soon to state the obvious: At this point, the war against the Islamic State can be seen only as failing.

U.S.-led air power has barely been able to keep the jihadist militants from capturing the Syrian town of Kobane, near the Turkish border — and the besieged city may yet fall. Far to the southeast, Islamic State fighters have come within a few miles of Baghdad and threaten to consolidate their control of the vast Anbar Province, the Sunni heartland of Iraq. The self-proclaimed “caliphate” remains intact, and its forces are advancing.

As we have noted for quite some time, Robinson’s assessment is correct. More to the point, the current strategy couldn’t have produced any other outcome. Air strikes on small-scale terrorist networks make sense, as dropping an army into places like Waziristan to find a few needles in a haystack can create more problems than it solves. When one wants to “degrade and destroy” a marauding army that has seized significant amounts of territory, it takes an army to push them off of that ground. Air strikes in civilian areas won’t force that army to move out where they can be more easily targeted, after all.

Barack Obama and John Kerry keep counseling patience, but Robinson has run out of it:

But patience is justified only if there is a reasonable expectation that the myriad political obstacles barring the path toward success can be overcome. I’m not sure whether the president and his aides are guilty of optimism or self-delusion.

Robinson’s convinced it’s the latter — and the actions of the Turks certify his conclusion. The White House announced that Turkey had agreed to allow us to use Incirlik as a base for our operations against ISIS, and the Turks immediately disputed that report. They won’t attack ISIS to save Kobani, but they allow Islamist fighters to cross the border to fight Assad, or did until very recently. Finally, he seizes on a point that gets to the heart of the issue without perhaps realizing it:

In Iraq, the Islamic State will not be defeated as long as it has the support, or at least the acquiescence, of large segments of the nation’s Sunni minority. This will not change as long as Sunnis view the jihadist militants as a bulwark against the Shiite majority and its sectarian militias.

Obama knew from the beginning that these — and other — problems in Iraq and Syria are essentially political and can’t be solved by military action alone.

He didn’t — but he should have. That is precisely why Leon Panetta and Robert Gates kept advising Obama to find a way to keep American troops in Iraq. Had we kept that force in place, we could have put more pressure on Nouri al-Maliki to integrate the Sunnis into the public life of Iraq. Instead, we walked away and allowed Maliki to purge the Sunnis, creating exactly the conditions that Robinson now laments.

Robinson wonders why we’re bothering to fight this war at all, which is an honest position to take, even though it’s just as honest to believe that it’s short-sighted and dangerous. What isn’t honest is pretending to try to “degrade and destroy ISIS” while employing a strategy that has no hope of success, and no hope of creating a ground force among allies to push ISIS off its ground and into the open for its destruction. One can disagree with Robnson’s overall opinion while agreeing that doing what we’re doing now is worse than either of the alternatives.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Syria
KEYWORDS: barack0bama; iraq; isil; isis; johnwhowasinnamkerry; turkey
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

1 posted on 10/14/2014 4:58:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Turkey's Largest City Is Rattled By Growing Signs Of ISIS Support
2 posted on 10/14/2014 5:12:46 AM PDT by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

I read the same words in the UK from blokes posting emails as well as journalist Peter Hitchens, who calls the actions of David Cameron all bluff and bluster.

The phony nature of the situation is proved by what has happened and is happening at Khobani on the Turkish border with Syria.

For weeks the IS guys attacked and pushed the Kurds back into the town, then the airstrikes begin. Meanwhile the Turkish tanks standby overlooking the town while the Kurds are crushed.

Peter Hitchens put it this way in a recent column....

“Almost everything you thought you knew about the war with IS has been proved untrue by the absurd stand-off at Kobane on the Syrian-Turkish border.

Turkey isn’t our ally, even though it’s in Nato. On the contrary, it’s an increasingly Islamist state run by a dangerous demagogue who should worry us as much as IS does.

That’s why the Turkish tanks stand and watch as IS overwhelms the brave defenders of Kobane.”


3 posted on 10/14/2014 5:18:57 AM PDT by Nextrush (OBAMACARE IS A BAILOUT FOR THE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Could it be because we really haven’t started to fight them.


4 posted on 10/14/2014 5:20:40 AM PDT by riverrunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Exactly what 0wanted.


5 posted on 10/14/2014 5:21:41 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Donna Brazile has her head so far up that wide caboose of hers it’s pathetic. So is the wide caboose.


6 posted on 10/14/2014 5:22:37 AM PDT by NRA1995 (I'd rather be a living "gun culture" member than a dead anti-gun candy-ass.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NRA1995

You said it


7 posted on 10/14/2014 5:23:26 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

The “O” ‘sterile’, ‘war from a distance’ is not going to work with THIS enemy.

Maybe he thinks if he keeps US military opposition nominal, grudging and at a ‘remove’, failure will not touch him …. and he can STILL say he tried.

The whole thing is typical of an irresolute and out–of-his-depth Liberal community organizer who finds himself in a REAL job with REAL accountability.

Liberals always want it BOTH WAYS! This works best for them because they are paralyzed with fear at having to take command of a situation, make a decision, then ACT responsibly and decisively.

I used to be like that… then I grew up!


8 posted on 10/14/2014 5:24:53 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Kind of hard to win when the administration is made up of Muslims.


9 posted on 10/14/2014 5:25:10 AM PDT by longfellow (Bill Maher, the 21st hijacker.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Robinson: You Know, We're Losing the Fight Against ISIS

There are Robinsons, and there are Robinsons.

Some (hey Yoo-Jeen!) are a little slower than others.

10 posted on 10/14/2014 5:26:17 AM PDT by Fightin Whitey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
"That is precisely why Leon Panetta and Robert Gates kept advising Obama to find a way to keep American troops in Iraq. Had we kept that force in place, we could have put more pressure on Nouri al-Maliki to integrate the Sunnis into the public life of Iraq. Instead, we walked away and allowed Maliki to purge the Sunnis, creating exactly the conditions that Robinson now laments."

Let's play the what if game. What if it had been George W Bush who had pulled out all of the troops from Iraq in 2011? Would we not be hearing about this over and over again ad nuesuem in the press? Thus insulating Obama and putting all the blame on Bush? But since it was Obama who screwed up in epic proportions, the press gives him a pass.

Let's not forget that this was Obama's strategy all along. Come hell or highwater, we're getting out of Iraq. Remember the debate against McCain in 2008? When McCain supposedly made a gaffe by saying what does it matter if we leave troops in Iraq for 50 years? No one remembers that he then went onto say as long as they are not getting killed. And he also drew the correct parallel to how we have had troops stationed in South Korea since the end of the Korean war. Yes, McCain makes intelligent and cogent arguments from time to time....
11 posted on 10/14/2014 5:39:25 AM PDT by Old Teufel Hunden
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SMARTY
Lets see, a committed, relatively low-tech enemy able to hide easily among the local population. An air campaign of fits and starts, intent on bombing them back to the negotiating table or from taking any more territory. "Leadership" that thinks it can direct the day to day operations and micro-manage the war from DC.

All that sounds familiar. I don't think it will work any better this time around than it did in SE Asia. But then, if liberals actually learned from history, they wouldn't be liberals and support such blatantly socialist/fascist ideals that have been proven to be bad over and over and over again.

12 posted on 10/14/2014 5:51:29 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: ThunderSleeps

Yup!


13 posted on 10/14/2014 6:21:16 AM PDT by SMARTY ("When you blame others, you give up your power to change." Robert Anthony)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
Had we kept that force in place, we could have put more pressure on Nouri al-Maliki to integrate the Sunnis into the public life of Iraq.

This is BS. We could stay there 500 years and we would never be able to "put pressure" on Shia and Sunnis to work together.

This is just more pie-in-the-sky gobbledygook speak.

Whenever we left Iraq it was going to fall apart. Whether that was under Obama or anyone else. Same thing happened in Egypt. Same thing happened in Libya when their dictators fell.

These people cannot get along. Period. They've been fighting each other and chopping off heads for over 600 years.

It is not our fault they are like this.

14 posted on 10/14/2014 6:40:18 AM PDT by Lorianne (fed pork, bailouts, gone taxmoney)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ThunderSleeps

Ed Zackery. And the leftist press has acted as though every war or conflict led by a Republican is Viet-Nam II. Now they have a rat president trying his best to create another Viet-Nam and the press is silent. Evil bastards every one.


15 posted on 10/14/2014 6:44:09 AM PDT by RightOnTheBorder
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
I’m not sure whether the president and his aides are guilty of optimism or self-delusion.

neither . . . the word is "TREASON"

16 posted on 10/14/2014 6:46:45 AM PDT by RatRipper (No need to rob others; democRATS will steal and share a tiny bit with you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RatRipper

Treason is practiced openly now ... there are no consequences and no convictions. A country that does not punish treason cannot long stand.


17 posted on 10/14/2014 6:55:27 AM PDT by Comment Not Approved (When bureaucrats outlaw hunting, outlaws will hunt bureaucrats.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: RightOnTheBorder
Yeah, I try not to see every conflict since Vietnam as another Vietnam. Of course the press, as you point out, loves to try to draw that conclusion for any GOP leader and ignore it for any 'rat.

Most conflicts have been very different and a comparison to Vietnam is meaningless. However, obama's handling of ISIS is starting to smack of the same fundamental incompetence and incorrect assumptions that made Vietnam such a charlie-foxtrot. In that regard I think the comparison is valid and that there are a lot of parallels.

18 posted on 10/14/2014 7:11:12 AM PDT by ThunderSleeps (Stop obarma now! Stop the hussein - insane agenda!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin
It’s not too soon to state the obvious

1) Bombs do not win wars.
2) ISIS is very capable, militarily.
3) It is possible for us to lose the war, of which Mesopotamia is a battle. Especially if we don't fight.

19 posted on 10/14/2014 7:14:00 AM PDT by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Kaslin

Just cut off all access to drinking water. Should only take a few weeks for things to shake out. Use the military to capture remote areas near rivers. Dam them up and sit back to pick off the desparate attempts to search for water. Should be SOP in the Middle East.


20 posted on 10/14/2014 7:28:18 AM PDT by Codeflier (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama - 4 democrat presidents in a row and counting...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-24 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson