I’m trying hard to not say anything that might discourage the President from doing what is probably the least-bad option* here.
President Barack Obama said Thursday Iraq will need more help from the United States as it seeks to push back a violent Islamic insurgency that has captured two key cities and is vowing to press toward Bagdad.
Obama did not specify what type of assistance the U.S. would be willing to provide, but said he had not ruled out any options.
I’m trying really, really hard.
Moe Lane
*The current relationship that we have between us and the Kurds – who have been, honestly, pretty cheerfully down with the idea of being a client state of ours** – is still valuable enough that we should try to keep it. That’s a good, practical reason not to just abandon the whole region.
**Especially if being one means that they can pick up parts of Syria.
Ace has a bit up (http://ace.mu.nu/archives/349785.php) indicating ISIS sacked the Mosul central bank and is now the best funded terrorist organization on the planet.
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So … yeah. This one is going to get lots of people killed.
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Mew
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The big hangup on your **, Moe, is that they’re also eyeballin’ parts of Turkyie. Not that I’m a big fan of the current Turk regime, but .. antagonizing them has been against policy for a while now…
I figure that I’ll stop caring about that once Edrogan pulls Turkey out of NATO.
I don’t think Turkey particularly wants Al Qaeda as a next door neighbor.
The question is whether they’d rather have a Kurdish buffer state to insulate them from AQ or just get their Ottoman on by slaughtering everyone dumb enough to be caught with a weapon when the Turkish Army rolls up. Given that Erdogan has been playing footsie with Teheran lately, I’m betting on #2.
Obama did not specify what type of assistance the U.S. would be willing to provide, but said he had not ruled out any options.
Drudge is currently featuring a photo of an Islamist convoy apparently on its way to Baghdad. I couldn’t help wondering what a few Warthogs could do to those bastards …
Won’t happen, though. 8(