Friday, August 22, 2014

President Obama’s Iraq problem keeps getting more problematic

Am I the only who thinks that President Obama wants to wait until after the mid-terms to escalate our involvement in Iraq?  My reasoning is that he does not want to turn off his base anymore than it already is.
Now or later, President Obama will have to go to the nation and give this mission a name and an objective.  He needs to do it because we are “mission creeping big time”, as Robin Wright wrote this week:
“The U.S., however, is already doing more than containing the Islamic State. Washington has now dispatched warplanes to aggressively push back the Islamic State, and the pretense of doing anything less should end.  
But so should the illusion about what  it will take to achieve that goal. The Operation Without a Name should not be an operation without a well-defined mission ��” or without a “winning” exit strategy. 
Given the human heartache and political headache from the last Iraq intervention, not to mention the mess left behind, Washington needs to be honest upfront in answering basic questions.”
Yes, and let me suggest a few questions:
First, it starts with President Obama explaining what our mission is.  All of this stuff about “doing what we have to do to protect our people” is too vague and sends out a message of weakness;
Second, President Obama needs to stop talking about the Iraq War that he opposed or ended as promised.  ISIS is a problem now and it requires a president who is living in the present; and;
Third, stop telling me that the public is “war weary.” We have a volunteer army and most Americans don’t know a single veteran.   Our #3 son is serving in the US Army.  He graduated with about 500 kids from high school. The overwhelming majority are not doing military service!
Robin Wright is here.  President Obama needs to be “upfront” about Iraq.
P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

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